DA SEES NO WHIFF OF CRIME IN SNIFF OF GEL

Lewisville: Case Involved Middle-Schooler Who Smelled Teacher's Sanitizer

Denton County prosecutors decided Friday to wash their hands of a
case against a Lewisville middle school student accused of trying to
get high by sniffing his teacher's hand sanitizer.

Three days after filing delinquency charges against the youth,
prosecutors did a turnaround and decided that the common cleaning gel
is not an abusive inhalant under the Texas Health and Safety Code.

"It's not a crime. Hand sanitizer does not fall within that statute,"
said Jamie Beck, first assistant district attorney in Denton County.
"The police agency brought it up mistakenly thinking it was."

Richard Ortiz, the father of the seventh-grader, welcomed the news
late Friday but expressed frustration that the case, which began in
October, went as far as it did.

"I'm glad the DA's office decided they made a mistake, but they
didn't decide that until after I hired a lawyer and the media got
involved," said Mr. Ortiz.

Mr. Ortiz, who asked that his 14-year-old son's name not be
published, said the boy was embarrassed and humiliated by the charge.
He described his son as a well-behaved teenager who makes good grades.

"They were going to prosecute my son," Mr. Ortiz said. "He still has
that stigma. People know him as a drug user, and he's not."

Mr. Ortiz's attorney, J. Michael Price II of Dallas, said he believes
that the Denton County prosecutor's office acted quickly to drop the
case once he brought the matter to the attention of Ms. Beck on Friday morning.

"I told her I didn't think a law had been violated," Mr. Price said.
"She made the appropriate decision without a lot of delay."

Mr. Ortiz said the family's ordeal began Oct. 19, when his son picked
up a bottle of hand sanitizer from the desk of his fifth-period
reading teacher at Killian Middle School in Lewisville. He rubbed the
gel on his hands and smelled it.

In the view of school officials, the boy "inhaled heavily," according
to Mr. Ortiz, who said his son sniffed the cleanser "because it smelled good."

The youth was sent to the principal's office, and the Lewisville
police officer assigned to the school began investigating.

"The event happened at the campus," said Dean Tackett, a spokesman
for the Lewisville Independent School District. "But once the police
took it over, it was a police investigation. They decide if there are
charges and what kind of charges."

The teen was required to serve a brief in-school suspension and was
also fingerprinted and photographed at the Lewisville Police
Department. He returned to regular classes at the school, including
one with the teacher whose sanitizer he sniffed.

Mr. Ortiz said he believed the matter was over until Tuesday when he
was served with a petition charging his son with delinquency for
inhaling the hand sanitizer to "induce a condition of intoxication,
hallucination and elation."

He said he couldn't believe that his son would have to go to court
for smelling hand sanitizer. "I think it's ludicrous," said Mr.
Ortiz, who blames overzealous police and prosecutors for initially
pursuing the case.

Joni Eddy, assistant police chief in Lewisville, said Friday that
hand sanitizer has become a popular inhalant. "That is the latest
thing to huff," she said.

She said officers felt they were acting properly when they pursued the case.

"The charge said he was using the product other than its intended
use," she said. "Huffing hand sanitizer is certainly using it for
something other than its intended use."

Hand sanitizers usually contain a high percentage of ethyl alcohol, a
flammable liquid used in a wide range of industrial products and
alcoholic beverages.

Shirley Simson, a spokeswoman for the National Institute on Drug
Abuse in Washington, said in an e-mail that the agency had no data
about hand sanitizers being abused as inhalants. She noted, however,
that there have been news reports of some people drinking hand
sanitizers for their alcohol content.