BOSTON (WHDH) - At least four students at a Dorchester school were taken to a hospital after they ingested cannabis products Tuesday morning, according to school officials and parents.
First responders were called to the Henderson K-12 Inclusion School on Croftland Avenue sometime after 11 a.m. for the incident.
In a letter addressed to the school community, Head of School Stephanie Sibley said the three middle school students ingested “what appeared to be a cannabis-infused chocolate edible.”
“School staff immediately notified BPS Safety Services and Boston Police of the incident,” Sibley stated in the letter. “The families of all students involved were immediately notified and the students were seen by the school nurse. Boston EMS was also notified of the incident, and the students were taken to a local hospital for further medical care. An investigation into this incident is ongoing.”
In addition to the middle schoolers, a 15-year-old boy was also hospitalized after he ingested cannabis via a vape pen that was being passed around in a bathroom, according to his mother.
“He told me one puff – it wasn’t one puff, because you’re not going to get sick from one puff,” Marlena Woodliff told reporters.
She said her son suffered serious symptoms, including vomiting, high blood pressure, an elevated heart rate and appeared pale.
“He was out of it – from what I was told, he was given Narcan,” she said.
The incidents are the latest to be handled by Boston Public Schools, after EMS crews were called to the Tobin School in Roxbury on March 6 due to students eating edibles, and another occurrence that happened at Henderson on March 21, also involving three middle school-age kids.
All of which are leaving parents scratching their heads
“I’m wondering what’s the plan going forward to prevent this from happening,” said Aslin Perez, the aunt of a student at Henderson. “It’s already the second time – we don’t want a third time.”
An expert in pediatric medicine at Tufts Medical Center described how cannabis products can be especially dangerous for minors.
“Their body weight is less than an adult, their central nervous system is still developing so the effects can be very unpredictable in children,” Dr. Charles Murphy told 7NEWS.
Sibley’s letter detailed how drugs and drug paraphernalia are strictly prohibited on school grounds and that students could be subject to a search as necessary.
But for Woodliff, the latest incident is enough.
“I’m done sending him – for the rest of the school year, he’s out,” she told reporters.
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