Share and Follow
Inset: Utah student Flor Perry with her parents, Devin and Kim Perry. Background: The Utah school where Flor Perry allegedly drank from a teacher’s tumbler that had hard seltzer in it (KSL/YouTube).
In a troubling incident at a Farmington school in Utah, a developmentally delayed student named Flor Perry inadvertently drank from her teacher’s mug, which reportedly contained hard seltzer. The mug, a “stainless steel tumbler,” belonged to the teacher, Katherine Meatoga, who was allegedly consuming alcohol during class. This incident has sparked concern among the child’s parents and local authorities.
According to Flor’s parents, their daughter suffered a fall and hit her head after sipping from the tumbler. Kim Perry, Flor’s mother, expressed uncertainty about the amount of alcohol her daughter consumed, telling local NBC affiliate KSL that it was impossible to determine the exact quantity. Flor, who is 21 years old but functions at the developmental level of a 2-year-old due to a rare genetic condition known as 1p36 deletion syndrome, is nonverbal, complicating the situation further.
Kim Perry shared, “We were informed that her teacher was intoxicated while at school.” This incident is particularly distressing for the Perry family, who had previously faced an alleged abuse case involving Flor and another teacher at a different school in 2022. Now, they find themselves dealing with a similarly troubling situation.
In light of these events, the Perrys are calling for increased transparency and accountability within the school system to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future. Their experience underscores the need for vigilance and safety in educational environments, especially for vulnerable students like Flor.
Kim and Devin Perry have already had to go through an alleged case of abuse that Flor experienced in 2022 at the hands of another teacher at a different school, according to the couple. Now, they say, they’re forced to deal with a similar situation.
“Here we go again,” Devin Perry exclaimed. “This happened twice to our daughter. How many more incidents are going on that are not being reported on and divulged to parents?”
Meatoga was arrested and charged with possession or consumption of an alcoholic beverage at school, a class B misdemeanor, in connection with the March 18 hard seltzer incident, KSL reports.
Meatoga was employed by the Vista Education Center in the Davis School District at the time. The district says she has since resigned. A district spokesperson confirmed to KSL that Meatoga was drinking “hard seltzer in a stainless steel tumbler” when Flor “took possession of the employee’s mug” and drank from it.
“The Davis School District and our community have high expectations for educators,” the spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, in this circumstance, an employee violated that trust. We do not tolerate the possession or consumption of alcohol on school premises.”
The district did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment Monday.
Flor’s parents say she was adopted from Ecuador when she was 7 after Kim Perry met her while working at an orphanage when Flor was a baby.
“I just fell in love with her,” Kim Perry told KSL. “She had a sweet personality back then.”
Flor’s parents say that while she knows 20 different hand signs that she uses to communicate, it was impossible for the Perrys to know what had happened without being told by local officials.
“The district said they didn’t tell us because they didn’t have a witness report until several days later,” Devin Perry said. “These are vulnerable, nonverbal students who can’t come home and say, ‘Hey, something weird happened at school today.’ We’re trusting that the district is taking care of them and being open with us about things that occur.”
Meatoga is due to appear in court on May 5.