Several children at a Salt Lake City elementary school were sent to a hospital Thursday after they ate marijuana-laced brownies that another student brought to the playground.
According to a letter from the Salt Lake City School District, a student at Lincoln Elementary brought the brownies to the playground before school and sold or shared several of them with sixth-grade students, KTLA affiliate KSTU reported. Lincoln Elementary has kindergarten through sixth grade.
The girl distributed the brownies to seven students, all of whom knew the brownies were laced with marijuana, Salt Lake City Police Detective Greg Wilking said. The students began to feel ill after ingesting them. Two of the seven ended up going to a hospital as a result, and as of Friday afternoon they remained hospitalized.
The school district said it began investigating the incident as soon as administrators became aware of it, and it vowed to institute disciplinary, corrective and/or remedial action where appropriate. The parents of all children involved have been contacted, and school officials said Thursday’s events appear to be an isolated incident.
“We encourage you to also take this opportunity to speak with your children about the dangers associated with drug use,” the school’s principal, JaNeal Rodriguez, said in a letter sent to parents. “As the principal, I met with our sixth grade students today to review the various problems related to the use of drugs. Our counselor will also be working with our sixth grade teachers to plan and implement lessons that build the necessary social skills that will help our students choose to be drug-free and make other healthy lifestyle choices.”
The letter included two links regarding marijuana from the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. One is about Marijuana in general and one is a “kit” for speaking to children about marijuana.
