Teenager suspended from school for selling squirts of hand sanitizer to buy Doritos

Hand sanitizer is now the hottest item on the market because of coronavirus. Even in the United States, where the outbreak is relatively new, you might have trouble finding any on the shelves of most major stores.

In the United Kingdom, one teenager decided to try to capitalize on that demand by selling squirts of hand sanitizer to his classmates — and he got suspended for it.

The teenager was sent home after selling hand sanitizer for about $0.64 per squirt, and he made around $11 before his business was shut down. His mother posted about the incident on Facebook.

"Well the little turd has just been expelled from school for the day after been caught charging students 50p a squirt for hand sanitiser to protect themselfs from the bloody corona virus!!" Jenny Tompkins posted. "Very hard to discipline this behaviour when his dad phones him from work to call him a f***ing legend."

Tompkins said her son used the money to buy a multipack of Doritos and was going to buy a kebab later.

The need for sanitizer is so intense that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced that the state was selling its own, a 75% alcohol product sold for about $6 per gallon and produced by prison inmates.

Some people are choosing to make their own at home — sometimes with disastrous results. In New Jersey, a 7-Eleven owner was charged with endangering children and deceptive business practices for creating and selling a homemade hand sanitizer that allegedly burned four children.

"She wasn't trying to make a lot of money and obviously didn't mean to hurt anybody," a law enforcement official told the Daily Voice. "But she's no chemist."

Don't fret if you can't find any hand sanitizer, and avoid unproven homemade versions. Health officials say the best method of hand cleaning to protect against viruses is old-fashioned soap and water.