Preschool students at a Head Start school in South El Monte thought a teacher was rewarding them with colorful stickers she placed on their bodies, but parents say they were actually mood-calming patches affixed to their children without their consent.
Parents at Options for Learning Head Start said they noticed behavioral changes in their children over the last several weeks, including erratic mood swings and changes in their sleep patterns, which they believe were caused by the patches.
In a statement, Options for Learning said it met with a parent of a student and fired a school employee in response to the incident.
“The safety and well-being of the children in our programs are at the core of all we do,” the statement said. “Our investigation is ongoing, and an incident report has been submitted to [the California state Community Care Licensing], which will conduct its own investigation. We are reinforcing child safety with all our teachers and classroom staff. We will be meeting with other parents in the class to address their concerns.”
The controversy began Nov. 15 when a boy was picked up from the Head Start school and his mother noticed something on his back, according to parents who shared details of the incident in a group chat.
The boy’s mother noticed a strong herbal aroma on the patch and shared a picture of it with the other parents. The patch featured a lazy-eyed sloth.
Another parent, Stephanie Rodriguez, received the picture in the group chat and showed it to her 4-year-old son, Ethan. His face lighted up when he recognized it.
“His face was like an addict’s face,” Rodriguez said. “He said, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s the sticker. That’s the koala sticker.’”
He pointed to his foot and said his teacher would put it there and take it off before the end of the school day.
The California Department of Social Services, the state agency that licenses child-care facilities, confirmed it is investigating the South El Monte Head Start but could not comment further.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it was aware of the parent’s complaints, which have been compiled in a report and assigned to a detective. In a statement, the department said it cannot comment on the investigation.
This was not an isolated incident, parents say. Their children recognized pictures of the patches, and some even grabbed their parents’ phones and tried to smell the picture, according to Rodriguez.
The specific brand of patch the children recognized, ZenPatch Mood Calming Stickers, are promoted as including essential oils meant to calm children, and the product claims it’s all-natural. Online advertisements for the patches describe them as “safe, effective and chemical-free.” The online reviews are mixed, with some reviewers saying the patches help regulate moods and others calling them a “complete waste of money.”
Fox 11 News first reported on the incident at Options for Learning.
Many parents said they noted red flags leading up to this incident.
Rodriguez said her son fell at school earlier this year and hit his head, but staff didn’t immediately call her, instead letting him take a nap. When she asked the staff why no one called her, they said that a teacher advised against it.
“I said that was the wrong decision,” Rodriguez said.
Monique Mata said her 4-year-old son, Ezra, seemed energetic and outgoing before this last semester at Options for Learning. Then he grew irritable, lazy and cried in the morning when it was time to go to school. His sleep and eating patterns were also erratic, Mata said.
“He’s never talkative. Before he would talk about how his day went at school and answer questions. I asked him now, and he was just like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about it.’ He’s very timid and really mellowed out,” Mata said.
Mata said it’s as if the school is trying to push past what happened, and she doesn’t know if she can trust anything administrators say at this point.
“I just feel like they’re in on it,” she said. “They’re saying that everything is OK now, but it’s not. This is just the beginning.”