Seven students fell ill Tuesday after consuming candy laced with fentanyl, according to authorities.
Five of the Amherst, Virginia, children who ate the tainted gummy bears were hospitalized but have since recovered, police said, according to NBC News.
Virginia elementary school students ate gummies from bag that tested positive for fentanyl at school (via @ABC13News)https://t.co/rj767iQ0gr
— Crisis in the Classroom (@CITClassroom) December 13, 2023
One fourth grader distributed the fentanyl-laced gummies to classmates at Central Elementary School during lunch, the outlet reported. The sheriff’s office does not believe the child acted intentionally when sharing the edibles from his sandwich bag.
Students who consumed the candies experienced symptoms including nausea, vomiting, headaches and muscle spasms, according to the outlet. The victims have since fully recovered and “all the parents indicate they are doing well,” Amherst School Superintendent William Wells said.
The sandwich bag tested positive for fentanyl along with the gummies, according to a statement from the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office, the outlet reported. Officials believe the candy was contaminated when the child was either at home or on the way to school, according to NBC. (RELATED: Day Care Owner Indicted In 1-Year-Old’s Alleged Fentanyl Death, Accused Of Running Drug Ring Out Of Center)
Suspects Clifford Dugan Jr. and Nicole Sanders have been charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to the outlet. Sanders faces an additional charge of possession of a controlled substance, Lt. Dallas Hill of the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office revealed at a news conference Wednesday.
The school has been sanitized since the contamination, the outlet reported. Wells called fentanyl a “community issue” that schools cannot “suspend their way out of.”