Texas Teacher Resigns After Setting 12-Year-Old's Hand On Fire During Science Experiment

A middle school student in Texas suffered third-degree burns after a teacher set the 12-year-old's hand on fire during a science experiment last week. The unidentified female teacher has resigned from the institution, school district officials said.

Emergency officials responded to a report of an injury at Granbury Middle School on April 1, after the 37-year-old teacher put hand sanitizer on the student's hand and lit the hand sanitizer as part of the science experiment, CBS News reported.

The child who suffered burn injuries was rushed to Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth and was later transferred to Parkland Memorial Hospital's Burn Center in Dallas.

"A (Granbury Middle School) teacher has resigned and is no longer an employee of the school district. This follows a student injury on Friday during a science class experiment," the school district announced in a tweet Wednesday. The officials said the case is turned over to law enforcement for investigation.

The teacher reportedly conducted the same experiment multiple times throughout the day with other students without incident. Parents said the incident happened after the teacher asked the students if they wanted to see "something cool" when the class finished a test early that day.

"It looks like every class that day had a group of students volunteer to do it. There was also another classroom that was doing that same thing where there was no incident," Lt. Russell Grizzard, who works with Granbury Police Department, told NBC News.

The officials have not revealed the identity of the child. "We must follow federal requirements regarding student confidentially," Jeff Meador, the district's director of communications, said in a statement.

The child's current condition and further details regarding the burn injuries are unknown. Meanwhile, Lt. Grizzard said the injuries can be "pretty serious". "I don’t know the extent of the student’s burns right now. We’ll know more as we talk to them again, and as we get medical records," he added.

The case will be turned over to the Hood County District Attorney for review after the investigation and the teacher might face a charge of causing injury to a child, Lt. Grizzard said.