Poison Incident Stuns Town

LUCERNE VALLEY — This is a wind-swept desert community usually given to talk about chicken ranching and alfalfa, of mining for limestone--and about the time a Hollywood film crew showed up at the local beauty supply shop to buy some extra makeup.

There hasn’t been much use for psychobabble here, about pondering why adolescents do criminal things. But that changed the other day when a classroom of sixth-graders watched silently as one of the students poured rat poison into Sondra Haile’s Gatorade.

Finally, as several of the students discussed what to do, and thought that maybe they should warn their teacher after lunch, a girl stood up, approached Haile and told her what happened.

Haile, 54, looked into her bottle, saw green crystals on the bottom, and dismissed her class for lunch. By afternoon, two girls and two boys were under arrest for the attempted murder of their teacher.

On Tuesday, the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office filed lesser charges of felony food poisoning against the girls, and of being accessories after the fact against the boys who stashed the box of rat poison afterward.

But on Wednesday--after more investigation--prosecutors also charged the two girls with willful, premeditated and deliberate attempted murder, said San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Dennis Stout. The poisoning plot may have been brewing for two months, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen Parker-Parent, who is prosecuting the case.

The girls denied guilt and were ordered held in Juvenile Hall pending trial June 6.

The charges against the boys were not changed and they were released to their parents Wednesday.

“When my generation was going to sixth grade, no one would have dreamed of anything like this, much less plan it, prepare it and actually execute it,” Stout said Wednesday. “I don’t know what’s going on with this class of juveniles.”

The father of one of the girls spoke briefly to reporters outside Juvenile Court in San Bernardino after Wednesday’s hearing. He said his daughter was a cheerleader who was getting good grades and he couldn’t understand what has happened.

“I don’t know what could have brought this on,” he said.

The incident occurred Friday and the word got out late Monday. On Tuesday the media blew in out of the west, satellite trucks and all, and residents took cover. Few people wanted to talk because few people could figure out what on earth had happened in Haile’s classroom. After all, Lucerne Valley Middle School is filled with just a bunch of great kids.

On Wednesday, Ron Peavy, the superintendent of the small, 1,200-student district, shook his head.

“My own initial reaction was that I simply didn’t want to believe it,” said Peavy, who was a classroom teacher and coach in Montebello from 1966-72. “It really, truly didn’t hit me, the reality of what happened, until the weekend.”

Sure, some students are smart-alecks and talk back, he said. Some are apathetic. Some have been expelled for possession of weapons and drugs because these schools have zero-tolerance policies. But by and large, students out here get along, respect their elders, develop a work ethic at an early age and enjoy the camaraderie that flows out of small schools, Peavy said.

“Disrespect is not a problem out here. This,” he said, referring to the incident, “is not us.”

One 17-year resident said she knows the parents of some of the children involved, and said they are as disbelieving as the rest.

“This town was never more shocked,” said Judy Baudoux, who works at the local supermarket. “Were the parents surprised? Sheesh. They say they have no idea what got into their kids’ heads.

“But look at the age of these kids [11 and 12]. They act, but they don’t think about the end results,” Baudoux said. “Kids laugh and joke at death because they see death as an everyday occurrence on television and in the movies. I don’t think these kids had a clue what they were doing.”

Indeed, some residents reflected on the irony of it all: They moved to this community of about 10,000 people, 25 miles east of Victorville in San Bernardino County’s sprawling High Desert, to get away from big city problems.

Mary Urutia arrived here 11 years ago from East Los Angeles to provide a less threatening environment for her young son, she said.

“We came here because it was quiet and peaceful, a place to give my son a better life,” she said. “But we’re not isolated, and TV and movies get out here, and they still cheapen life.”

It was Urutia’s 11-year-old daughter, Evelyn, who blew the whistle on the attempted poisoning, Urutia said.

She said her daughter and others in the class watched silently as several students passed the box of rat poison back and forth, and then as one of the girls poured the contents into the Gatorade.

Nobody said anything and the bottle was placed back on Haile’s desk, Urutia said. “My daughter said they were all afraid to. Peer pressure. Evelyn and two of her friends debated what to do and one of them said they should tell the teacher after lunch. My daughter said, ‘No way,’ and told Mrs. Haile.”

The next day, Urutia said, Haile called Evelyn to thank her.