School says student did ... what?
Allegedly put semen in cafeteria salad dressing

December 16, 2006
BY STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN Staff Reporter
From The Chicago Sun Times
A Wheaton North High School student is expected to surrender to police Monday on charges that he doctored a bottle of salad dressing in the school cafeteria with his own semen in a practical joke that met with disgust.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Marco Raphael G. Castro, 17, of unincorporated DuPage County near Wheaton, for attempted aggravated battery and disorderly conduct. He is expected to be booked as an adult when he surrenders Monday, said Wheaton Deputy Police Chief Thomas E. Meloni.

Castro allegedly took a bottle of ranch salad dressing from the juniors' and seniors' cafeteria on Dec. 6, went into a restroom, ejaculated into the bottle and returned it to the condiment cart, police said.

School officials were told about the incident Tuesday after students who had heard about it came forward. The school contacted police and the DuPage County Health Department.

Castro, a senior at the west suburban school, has been "appropriately disciplined," district officials said. The district would not give specifics, citing privacy laws.

The contaminated salad dressing could have been used during the final lunch period Dec. 6 and during all five lunch periods on Dec. 7 before all of the dressing containers were routinely sanitized and refilled, according to a statement from Wheaton Warrenville School District 200.

Supt. Gary T. Catalani said officials have no way of knowing for certain how many children consumed it.

Besides feeling disgusted, some in the school community were left wondering about possible health effects.

Chief on their minds: Hepatitis B or C or HIV.

The student was tested Wednesday for a variety of infectious diseases, a District 200 official said. Arrangements were being made for possible further testing, said Melanie Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Even so, "the risk is extraordinarily low that any kind of infectious disease could be transmitted through ingestion of this," Arnold said.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concurred.

Wheaton North Principal Jill Bullo sent a letter to parents this week apologizing for the "unusual and disgusting incident."

District officials said Castro admitted to tampering with the salad dressing after extensive questioning. "He allegedly hoped to watch other students use it," the district's statement said.

Some students thought it was just a rumor. Some laughed; others said they were embarrassed and disgusted. One girl vowed never to eat cafeteria food again.

Parents of students who may have eaten the contaminated salad dressing will be told immediately if the student's test results indicate that other students should be tested, the district said.

I think this is really rather stupid. This is another example of society making far too big a deal out of nudity and sex. Albeit in very poor taste, perhaps, I really don't consider this woman's behaviour to warrant a prison sentence, and I certainly question whether her children will really be "scarred for life" as the judge expresses.

Mother gets up to 4 years for posing
She had her children take photos of her nude, prosecutor says.
By Tyra Braden Of The Morning Call

A former Allentown woman who struck seductive nude poses and ordered her 12-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter to photograph her showed up in court Friday wearing jeans with ''Booty'' emblazoned on the left rear pocket and ''Licious'' on the right in what appeared to be rhinestones.

Northampton County Judge Stephen G. Baratta sent Julie Figueroa, 43, to state prison for nine months to four years. Figueroa's adult daughter jumped to her feet as deputy sheriffs clamped handcuffs on Figueroa's wrists. ''Excuse me!'' she shouted. ''Can I say goodbye to my mother?''

''Ma'am,'' Baratta said sharply, ''Be quiet.''

''This isn't fair,'' the sobbing daughter screamed.

Figueroa's daughter continued to cry as she was escorted by a deputy from the courtroom. Baratta told another deputy he would not object to allowing the daughter to speak with Figueroa once Figueroa had been locked in a holding cell.

Figueroa pleaded guilty Oct. 17 to endangering the welfare of children. At that hearing, the adult daughter did not provide her name, but said she was 20. She told Baratta her mother had ''mental disabilities.''

At Friday's sentencing hearing, Baratta said Figueroa had tried to minimize her actions and initially claimed she was ''a victim of false allegations.'' Figueroa was living on Pawnee Street in Bethlehem in March. It was there that she posed and had the children snap photos with a cell phone.

Assistant District Attorney Patricia C. Broscius said Figueroa, when confronted, claimed she posed topless. However, Broscius said, the photographs police recovered showed Figueroa nude and in sexual positions. Figueroa's attorney, Gilbert J. Negrete Jr. of Bethlehem, told the judge Figueroa had her children take the photos so she could put them on the Internet to find a boyfriend.

He added that ''it wasn't her intention for her son to have the pictures.''

Baratta said the boy not only had the photos but showed them to some of his friends. Figueroa was charged when her estranged husband saw the pictures and notified police. Negrete told Baratta that Figueroa takes full responsibility for what happened. He suggested that Figueroa needs psychiatric care and not prison.

''What do you think the impact was for the children?'' Baratta asked. ''At 12 and 13 their mother involved them in a sexcapade…Aren't they emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives? Does she really get it? She used her children as a tool to promote her own prurient, and I'm going to say bizarre, harmful goals in attracting men on the Internet.''

Baratta said if he didn't send Figueroa to prison, other parents would feel free to commit similar crimes. Figueroa said she knows she was wrong, but that having her children taken away was punishment enough.

''I'm thinking that maybe you shouldn't be allowed to have children,'' Baratta said. ''It's all about you. It's all about you and your fun and games.''