LAND O’LAKES, Fla. – A troubled Florida 13-year-old faces criminal charges after police allege she attempted to poison her teacher with chalk.

The unnamed student at the Achieve Center of Pasco, an alternative school for students with behavior and emotional issues, allegedly crushed beige sidewalk chalk from an assignment into a powder then poured it into her teacher’s coffee Sept. 16, WFLA reports.

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“Investigators say the girl distracted her teacher by pointing to the other side of the room and asking a question about a photo of the victim’s family,” according to the news site.

The teen then left to get on her bus, and another student alerted the teacher before she sipped from the drink.

“If she hadn’t witnessed it and then stopped the teacher from taking a drink out of the cup, then the teacher could have become ill,” Pasco County School spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said.

The student who foiled the plot told deputies the girl said she hated the teacher “on multiple occasions,” according to the Land O’Lakes Patch.

“Due to the student intentionally placing a chemical compound in the victim’s coffee that she was drinking without regard to the medical hazard that could ensue,” deputies arrested the teen for poisoning food or water to kill or injure a person, a first degree felony, according to the arrest report cited by the Tampa Bay Times.

“I just can’t imagine a student so unhappy with their teacher that she would want to poison her,” parent Cheryl Good told WFLA.

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Local grandparent Elizabeth Vener was also dismayed.

“The teachers today live in fear of their students, sometimes,” she said. “It’s kind of frightening because even the parents aren’t backing up the teachers the way they should.”

Cobbe said the student will be expelled.

“It’s troubling when any student takes action that could physically harm a teacher, a younger student is even more shocking. Clearly, this little girl has troubles that hopefully she can get help for,” Cobbe said.

Sheriff’s officials said the student denied tainting her teacher’s coffee and was booked into a detention center in Pasco.

From the Times:

Chalk is generally nonpoisonous, according to the National Institutes of Health, but can be dangerous if ingested in large quantities. Symptoms of chalk poisoning could include abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea and vomiting.