4th graders exposed to fentanyl during school lunch; 2 caregivers arrested

AMHERST COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ/Gray News) - Seven elementary school students from Virginia are recovering after investigators say they ate gummies from a bag contaminated with fentanyl during lunch. The caregivers of one of the students were arrested in relation to the incident.

Kristina Wright and her son, Hayden Floyd, experienced something she never thought could happen at an elementary school. The fourth grader got sick after eating gummies in a bag contaminated with fentanyl, WDBJ reports.

“The first thing that comes to me is anger,” Wright told WDBJ. “As a parent, our job is to protect our children.”

Amherst County school officials say a fourth grade student shared his gummies with six other students during lunch Tuesday at Central Elementary School. The kids started having symptoms of nausea, vomiting and muscle spasms. Five of them were taken to hospitals.

“The aftertaste was nasty, and it didn’t taste like gummies,” Hayden said. “The [students] that ate it, we all felt sick.”

At hospitals, doctors did tests to see if fentanyl got into the children’s blood streams, but Wright says her son’s tests came back negative.

“It just shows proof that anything can happen anywhere, and our kids really need to be aware of anything they take from other children,” Wright said. “Speak to your children. Let your children know. Not everybody wants to talk about drugs, but in today’s [world], we have to let everybody know. We have to let our children know how dangerous the world can be.”

Superintendent Dr. William Wells said the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office tested the bag of gummies twice, and it tested positive both times for fentanyl. He stressed the gummies the kids ate did not test positive for fentanyl, but there were traces found in the bag they came in.

School officials said they pieced together that a student’s caregiver packed a food item in a Ziploc bag. The student then shared that item with other students. They believe the bag got contaminated either at home or on the way to school.

“The fentanyl didn’t just show up at school. The fentanyl came from somebody’s house,” Wells said.

Law enforcement said a sibling brought a second bag of gummies, which tested negative. They believe the incident was unintentional, as the child who brought the gummies also ate them.

All five students taken to hospitals for treatment were released the same day and are recovering, according to Wells.

The caregivers of the child who brought the gummies to school, Clifford Dugan Jr. and Nicole Sanders, were arrested in relation to the incident about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. Court records obtained by WDBJ indicate they are charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Dugan is being held with no bond and faces a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Sanders faces a separate charge of possession of a controlled substance.

Investigators say more charges could be pending.

“This type of behavior is completely unacceptable. It’s unacceptable for this county [and] for our families. We will work diligently day and night to be able to bring to justice those who commit this act,” said Lt. Dallas Hill with the sheriff’s office.

Sharing a sweet treat at school is common among students, but Wells says that will change moving forward. The district is taking additional measures to prevent something like this from happening again.

“I told all the principals this morning to reiterate to their students, especially elementary students, the importance of not sharing food,” he said. “I know people want to bring in things for Christmas parties and things like that but making sure that what they bring in is in original packaging and sealed.”

The school did not have to use Narcan, but Wells said after this week, each school plans to increase its Narcan supply.

“We have to have those plans in place for the worst case scenarios or how we would react if this was a bigger incident,” he said.

Wells said fentanyl is an entire community issue, and this incident could have turned deadly.

“What’s going on in society that’s allowed these things to happen, and why are we fighting this battle with fourth graders at an elementary school?” Wells said. “It’s bad enough with adults, but how is this getting transcribed over to our elementary students?”

According to Wells, even though the fentanyl was contained to the bag, the entire school was cleaned as a precaution.

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