SPRING, Texas — Parents of preschool students at a Spring ISD elementary school said teachers have been giving their children sleeping aides.
They said their children told them they were given "sleepy stickers" that would make them fall asleep.
An email from Northgate Elementary School's principal on Tuesday said two staff members were put on leave after allegedly providing sleeping supplements to students.
The email also said the Spring ISD Police Department is also investigating.
"The sticker makes me fall asleep," 4-year-old Layne Luviano said.
Layne broke the case open in September when she snuck one of the stickers home. Lisa Luviano, Layne's mother, said the sticker was suspicious and she immediately started doing some research online. She quickly found the sleeping patches being sold on Amazon. The patches are for adults and contain melatonin and other ingredients.
Lisa said she took what she found to the school but said other parents were never notified, even after she told administrators that Layne said other students were getting the stickers, too. That's when Lisa took matters into her own hands and started contacting other parents, advising them to speak with their children.
"I showed it to my 4-year-old and she said, 'Yes, that's the sleepy sticker,'" Melissa Gilford said.
Gilford's 4-year-old daughter is also in Layne's class and she also went online to research the sticker.
"They're called Sleep Z Patch, and if you read the ingredients it has a lot of things I've never even heard of," Gilford said.
Najala Abdullah said she noticed changes in her son since school started. She said he was crying more than usual and was not eating. She said he would bring home lunches that had not been touched.
"They're giving them drugs to make them sleep to keep them quiet," Abdullah said.
Parents said they met with Spring ISD administrators on Tuesday who told them not to discuss the allegations because it would harm the investigation. They also said two teachers aides assigned to the preschoolers were put on leave Tuesday.
KHOU 11 has made multiple attempts to reach school district officials but has not gotten a response.