Buffalo Mother Sentenced to Jail After Daughter Brings Mushroom-Laced Chocolate Bar to School

(KNSI) – A Buffalo woman has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after her six-year-old daughter brought a chocolate bar laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms to school, leading to two children overdosing.

Forty-year-old Cassie Rae Tauriainen pleaded guilty in Wright County District Court to fifth-degree drug possession. The incident happened on September 10th, 2025, at Cokato Elementary School, where Tauriainen’s daughter and a five-year-old boy fell ill after eating the chocolate during morning snack time.

School staff said the two children had been laughing and crying while acting in an unusual manner. Staff later found packaging for a mushroom chocolate bar containing six grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms in a garbage can. The girl told a social worker that she had taken the chocolate bar from the refrigerator.

According to the criminal complaint, when deputies searched Tauriainen’s home, they found fentanyl, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in multiple rooms, including meth near a child’s cup and clothing.

Tauriainen has a lengthy criminal history in Minnesota, including convictions for theft, drug offenses and drunken driving. She was on probation for meth possession at the time of the school incident. She has voluntarily given legal custody of the girl to the child’s father.

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