08-05-2025
Awful photo shows what happened to adorable Alabama girl, 5, who drank ETHANOL at school
The parents of a 5-year-old Alabama girl are desperate for answers after she was was found to have ingested a large amount of alcohol commonly found in cleaning products after being picked up from school.
Little Algeria Singleton was limp and 'slobbering at the mouth' when her parents arrived at Collins-Rhodes Elementary School in Prichard outside Mobile on April 28.
Her mother, Mary Singleton, said neither she nor her husband, Albert, 47, had been contacted by the school, despite their daughter's alarming condition.
'The school teachers came out to the van with her, but they was carrying her instead of her walking,' Mary told WKRG.
'The nurse, she broke it down as to where she probably felt like it was like an ear infection. But it was nothing of that nature.'
The teacher then handed the child to her parents, urging them to seek emergency care.
'She was slobbering at the mouth, she was heavy, and the teacher handed her to me, saying we probably needed to take her to the ER,' Mary told WALA.
Algeria was rushed to Children's and Women's Hospital in Mobile, where she spent two days in the ICU.
Doctors found she had consumed a large amount of ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, which is commonly found in products like hand sanitizers, skincare items, perfumes, and some food packaging materials, according to the Chemical Safety Facts Organization.
The girl's blood-alcohol content was recorded at 0.29 percent - more than four times the legal driving limit of 0.08 percent for adults in Alabama.
'How is this even possible?' Albert asked. 'Where was the supervision?'
A toxicology report confirmed the presence of ethanol, though how Algeria accessed it remains unclear.
Albert said his daughter was unresponsive from about 3 pm, when they picked her up at school, until around 3 am the next morning.
Algeria was discharged from the hospital on April 30 and is recovering slowly, reported.
The family said they did not plan to send her back to the school for the rest of the year.
The Singletons are now desperate for answers as to what happened that day and how their little girl may have accessed the substance.
Doctors found she had ingested a large amount of ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, which is commonly found in products like hand sanitizers, skincare items, perfumes, and some food packaging materials
The Singletons (pictured with family) are now desperate for answers as to what happened that day and how their little girl may have accessed the toxic substance
'It's hard to deal with when you see your child walking into school and being carried out, you know, and you don't have any idea what's going on,' Albert told WALA.
'We feel betrayed,' Mary added to WKRG. 'Because of the way the whole situation was handled. Bad. You know, and they know us personally… and they could have did a better job reaching out.'
The Mobile County Public Schools System did not respond to several news outlets' requests for comment.
Albert said the incident is being investigated by the Prichard Police Department, Mobile County Sheriff's Office and the Mobile County District Attorney's Office.
