NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A middle school student in New Jersey brought marijuana gummies from home and shared them with classmates, resulting in the students being taken to the medical center for evaluation on Wednesday, according to officials.
The incident happened on Valentine’s Day morning when a student at Phifer Middle School in Pennsauken shared some gummies brought from home with three other students either before school or sometime during the morning, according to Superintendent Ronnie Tarchichi.
Staff soon noticed that the students were acting strange and per school police and sent them to the nurse. All four were then taken to a medical facility, Tarchichi said.
The student who brought the gummies was disciplined per district policy, according to NJ.com.
Tarchichi sent a letter to parents, informing them about the incidents and outlining the precautions the school will be taking as the next steps.
“This is a very serious situation that was handled impeccably by our middle school administration and staff,” Tarchichi said. “It is important to tell our children that they could not be ingesting any type of candy that does not come from the school or from their parents/guardians.”
He then talked about the risk of children getting into other items that may be laced with drugs like opioids or fentanyl.
“For a point of reference, an amount of fentanyl no larger than a baby aspirin can kill an adult,” Tarchichi said. “We will be enforcing that no students eating anything outside the cafeteria.”
He then warned parents to be “responsible and make sure that children know the danger of these gateway drugs, despite the legality of its use and the irresponsible placement of dispensaries near schools.”
Security checks are conducted every morning at both Pennsauken High School and Burling High School, according to Tarchichi. He mentioned that as a result of these measures, incidents like the one at Phifer Middle School have been avoided.
“It was previously planned for Phifer Middle School to implement similar security checks in September 2024,” the letter read. “The issue in Phifer Middle School will not repeat itself with the proper security measures that mirror those in our high schools. Finally, it is important to note, that if a student distributes drugs to other students, whether legal or illegal, that student will be disciplined per district policy.”
The Pennsauken Police Department is conducting an ongoing investigation into the incident.