Lee teacher sickened after drinking soda he says students laced with cleaner

Jeffrey Jennings, a seventh-grade science teacher, became nauseated during the middle of one of his classes Tuesday, according to his wife, Marie Jennings. The nausea was later accompanied by a headache that forced him to leave school and go to an urgent care center, she said.

"The headache and the nauseousness was the worst thing, and then later that evening, he had the abdominal pain, which he ended up at Moore Regional (Hospital) the next day for," Marie Jennings said.

Lee County Schools policy prohibits Jeffrey Jennings from talking with the media.

Another teacher told Jeffrey Jennings that some students had told her two students put dry-erase board cleaner in his soda while he wasn't looking, Marie Jennings said.

"They had actually taken it off the desk, opened the cap, poured the expo cleaner, put the cap back on and put it back on his desk," she said.

Three days later, he's still feeling ill effects, as well as worrying about going back to class, his wife said.

"He has to go back and face these kids every day," she said.

Marie Jennings both she and her husband want the students behind the alleged tampering to be punished by the school and authorities.

"If these two kids don't face any kind of accountability, is someone else going to try and do this to him?" she asked. "Is he going to be the teacher that 'Oh, nothing happens when you mess with him, so pretty much do what you want?' That worries me."

The school district said in a statement that administrators are aware of the alleged incident and are investigating it. However, state law precludes the district from releasing the results of the investigation or any actions taken as a result of it, they said.