SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — A janitor at a South Jersey elementary school has been charged with contaminating school food and utensils with body fluids and bleach.
According to the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, state troopers were tipped off on Monday that 25-year-old Giovanni Impellizzeri — a janitor at Elizabeth Moore School in Upper Deerfield Township since 2019 — was seen in videos on the messaging app Telegram spitting on bread and rubbing it on his private areas before it was to be served to students.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, he also sprayed bleach into a container of cucumbers that children were to eat, urinated in bowls and on a library chair, and performed sexual acts with objects in the school.
Impellizzeri was arrested Tuesday. He faces several charges, including child endangerment and aggravated assault. Authorities are still trying to determine whether the alleged actions happened recently or in the past.
Parent Bianca Pierce told NBC10 she was disturbed.
“What can you say to a situation where somebody was doing those disgusting things in the school where your child’s supposed to be safe? I felt like I was stabbed in the heart,” she said.
The Upper Deerfield Township School District is working with the Cumberland County Health Department to make sure that food prep areas have been sanitized and that any food in question was thrown out. Authorities have taken samples from Impellizzeri to determine whether he had any infectious diseases.
The district said Impellizzeri is on administrative leave.