Much has been made about teens potentially poisoning themselves by eating Tide Pods, which is a serious matter, along with what has reportedly happened in Chicago. Fourteen students at an elementary school on the city’s West Side were taken to nearby hospitals on Wednesday after consuming “candy laced with an unknown substance,” according to police and fire department officials. Chicago Public Schools said in a statement that all of the students “are in good condition, and none of the students’ symptoms are life-threatening.”
Officials at the school grew concerned and called ambulances to the school at around 9 a.m. “in response to concerns that a group of students may have ingested an unknown substance earlier this morning.” Unfortunately, a lack of communication lead to confusion once parents learned that ambulances were taking students to the hospital:
Parents were initially given conflicting accounts of what happened as ambulances arrived and began taking away children. Some were told it was a drill, others that it was an emergency of some kind. One grandparent of a student told parents that older students had candy with marijuana.
According to some parents who arrived on the scene after hearing news reports, they were turned away by security guards who said that their children were not affected unless they had received a call from the school. Chicago Public Schools said “a review of the situation is underway” but provided no further details.
(Via Chicago Tribune)