Two Virginia middle schoolers are facing felony charges after admitting to trying to poison their teacher by putting hand sanitizer in her drink on more than one occasion.
Jane Miller, a teacher at Hines Middle School in Newport News, Va., with more than 40 years under her belt, said she was "shocked" to learn that two of her math-review students had slipped hand sanitizer into her tea back in January.
"I was shocked, and I couldn't quite process it fast enough to realize what it meant," Miller, 66, told ABC News.
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Miller reportedly started feeling sick but had no idea why.
"My stomach would bother me," she told "Good Morning America." "I was running a low-grade temperature. I was just exhausted by the time I got home."
Another student came forward and alerted school officials that two boys had put hand sanitizer in Miller's tea. The unnamed students, both 13, were charged March 6 with attempted poisoning, a class-3 felony that carries a minimum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
The boys were kicked out of school after they confessed that they had put the substance in their teacher's drink at least twice. They are now attending a separate community school pending legal ramifications.
"It's the board's philosophy that all students should be offered some sort of educational experience," Newport News Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Price told ABC News. "They are with students who have been convicted of or are facing charges."
Miller said she didn't even realize the sanitizer was in her tea.
"When you're walking and teaching, you're thirsty," she told "GMA." "I just gulp."
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Earlier this month, a California preschool teacher was arrested after reportedly slipping Sominex sleeping pills into her students' sippy cups.
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