Teacher Arrested for Allegedly Chloroforming Students

Teacher Arrested for Allegedly Chloroforming Students
By Lisa Johnson Mandell

Regardless of how "energetic" some kids may be, it should be a no-brainer for a teacher to realize that it's not OK to give chloroform to your students. Authorities believe that a chemistry teacher at Livingston High School in the Merced, Calif., area was trying to help students get high when she aided them in inhaling chloroform.

Chemistry teacher Japhia Smith Huhndorf, 34, of nearby Atwater, was arrested on Monday for allegedly helping three male students, 16, 17 and 18 years old, ingest the chemical by inhaling it from a towel. Chloroform is used in schools to preserve tissue, but elsewhere it can be used as an anesthetic.

It was no surprise that she was arrested on suspicion of three counts of felony child endangerment for this particular incident, but what did come as a shock was what Sgt. Ray Fong of the Livingston Police Department told the Merced Sun Star: There were at least three similar incidents involving Huhndorf over the past five months.

Both students and parents told reporters that they were shocked to hear that Huhndorf had acted this way. Apparently, she was a very popular staff member and the label on her picture in the school yearbook shows that she was voted the "Most Spirited Teacher." Now, perhaps, we know why.