New Jersey Teacher: 'I Was Frightened' After Drinking Coffee Laced With Eye Drops

by Patricia A. Miller

Just like every other day during her 14-year career as a teacher at Central Regional High School, Kelly Grosse stopped at a local convenience store and picked up a cup of coffee to start her school day.

And just like every other day, she put her coffee on her desk in her homeroom and thought nothing of it.

But Tuesday was not like any other day.

It was still first period when Grosse and a 16-year-old male student were called out into the hallway by school authorities. They told her another student had seen the boy had put Visine in her coffee.

“I was dumbfounded,” she said. “I was frightened. I wasn’t feeling well when I was told that someone put something in my coffee.”

Kelly Grosse was taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River, where doctors ordered blood and urine tests and a chest X-ray. By then she had a burning feeling in her chest.

But she was released after a few hours, after tests showed nothing out of the ordinary. By the afternoon, Central’s assistant girls track and field coach was on her way to Barnegat High School to support the team at a track meet.

Berkeley Township police have charged the youth with aggravated assault.

“ As a result of the investigation, a juvenile was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault on a school board member,” Police Chief Karin T. DiMichele has said. ”The juvenile was processed and released to their parents pending Juvenile Court proceedings. ”

The 16-year-old boy was suspended immediately, Parlapanides said.

“He is entitled to due process, so a board hearing will be arranged and a determination will be made once the hearing has occurred and then reported back to the full board for a decision to be made,” he said.

Grosse says the student must face consequences for what he did, but she hopes it will not have a lifelong impact.

“I honestly don’t think he was trying to kill me,” she said. ”He would have used something more potent.”

A brave young lady

“The person I’m most concerned about is the person who stepped forward,” Grosse said. ”She is just a strong, brave woman.”

Grosse had to leave school a week ago Monday because she became violently ill with a stomach ailment. She doesn’t know if there is any connection to that day and the incident this week.

She has been overwhelmed and grateful for the phone calls, texts and e-mails from former students, parents and current students she received after the incident.

And she hopes her experience will help others to be a little more vigilant.

“You don’t know what other people are thinking,” Grosse said. “I’m naive enough to trust all my students,” she said. “But yes, I’m watching my drinks more carefully.”

Grosse is the wife of Berkeley Township Councilman L. Thomas Grosse Jr., who is also a Toms River police detective.