Texas mom charged with injury to a child for giving spiked Jell-O shots to 5th-graders

All parents make mistakes, but one mother’s horrific error in judgment has people wondering how someone could be such an “idiot.”

Teresa Isabel Bernal, 33, was arrested after bringing Jell-O shots to a school Christmas party involving fifth graders. While the wisdom of bringing anything mimicking an alcoholic treat to a child’s gathering is questionable enough, Bernal claims she didn’t realize they actually contained alcohol.

She was arrested on Monday and charged with injury to a child after several children fell ill and said they experienced “stomach aches and headaches.” According to the affidavit, one child even “passed out” from the drink.

Teresa Isabel Bernal, An East Texas woman, was arrested on Monday after reportedly providing Jell-O shots with vodka to 5th graders at a Tyler elementary school Christmas party.

According to a Smith County arrest affidavit, multiple children were throwing up, and one was unable… pic.twitter.com/zC3TgGX4ti

— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) April 22, 2025

For her part, Bernal claims she had purchased the shots from a local business during December to share at her daughter’s Christmas party and was under the impression they did not contain alcohol. She further admitted that she thought the shots “do taste different,” but it wasn’t until the children had already partaken of the adult treats that she realized they did have booze in them.

An investigator’s statement in the affidavit reveals how much trust the teachers had in Bernal.

“During the interviews I was told, while some of the teachers found it odd that Bernal would bring Jell-O shots to an elementary school party, they were trusting Bernal to not bring anything harmful to the school party. Bernal was an involved parent and was present at many functions at the school,” they wrote.

The teachers who sampled the shots could clearly taste alcohol, and sent the children to the nurse’s office, with only four children remaining behind.

Officers don’t believe this was some sort of freak accident or misunderstanding. In fact, they don’t believe Bernal could have reasonably thought the shots didn’t contain liquor at all.

“In my opinion, there is no way Bernal could have missed the fact that the Jell-O shots she purchased … and brought to her daughter’s 5th grade Christmas party contained drinking alcohol,” one officer wrote, adding that the Facebook page of the confectioner who sold the treats makes it clear that there is alcohol in the shots.

After posting a $75,000 bond on Monday, Bernal was released. She has been banned from the school grounds.

X users weighed in on the bizarre story:

The idiot ordered them from someone’s personal home. And picked them up from someone’s house.

— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) April 22, 2025

Wonder why it took them 4 months to arrest her

— opinionator (@OpinIndependent) April 22, 2025

pic.twitter.com/E3G2CloLBt

— FAFO Farms (@FAFOFarmsTX) April 23, 2025

I need her to walk me through the entire thought process behind this.

— HuckleBerry (@AFKHuckleBerry) April 23, 2025

My 5th grade teacher gave us swats, not shots!

— Charlie Dixon (@CharlieDix60116) April 22, 2025

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.

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