Eastside student found in possession of Dramamine
A pair of Eastside Elementary students are awaiting disciplinary action after pills identified by authorities as the prescription drug Dramamine were found in one’s possession after a search during a lockdown at the school on Monday.
School officials and Sheriff’s Department investigator Herb Rowland carried out the lockdown and subsequent search of the seventh and eighth-grade classrooms after an eighth-grade female student collapsed unconscious in a school hall. When she collapsed she was returning to class from a visit to the school’s nurse, to whom she was sent by her teacher after falling asleep in class and complaining of dizziness. Some of her fellow students said they feared she had ingested an unidentified substance given to her by someone else. The girl denies the allegation.
In response to the incident an ambulance was called. It was later said the girl had a history of blacking out due to low blood sugar, but school officials could not confirm that as she is a transfer student. She was found to be fine and is now back at school. She is not one of the students facing disciplinary action.
Eastside principal Jane Allison, who was attending a conference on Monday and was not at the school when the incident occurred, said she is investigating the matter, which she said has been blown out of proportion. Rumors of a eight students getting high and one going into convulsions, she said, are completely false.
“We haven’t found any illegal substances and have no proof any were here at Eastside,” she said. “The Sheriff’s Department didn’t take any action and didn’t make any arrests. I don’t think there should be any undue concern for the safety of the kids here. Everything has been blown out of proportion. I don’t think there’s a real drug problem here.”
“To my knowledge nobody was under the influence of anything. To jump to conclusions about drug use when some kids sleep in class is unfair, but some people are quick to believe the worst,” she said.
Allison said she has already interviewed all of the school’s eighth-grade students and is now interviewing the seventh graders. She said the students have cooperated and believes the vast majority of them have been telling her the truth. As a result of the Monday’s search and her own investigation she will be taking the one student found to be in possession of the pills and another implicated in unspecified connected wrongdoing in front of the school system’s Disciplinary Board.
She added the two students in question are only being charged with possession of the pills and that there is no evidence to suggest they had distributed them to fellow students. Allison said she will present what the search turned up and what her own investigation found and let the Disciplinary Board decide the matter. The Board will most likely hear the case next week.
According to Sheriff Jackie Matheny, the sheriff’s department will likely allow the school and parents to handle any disciplinary action concerning the incident. Matheny pointed out the alleged incident at Eastside is not the first case of Dramamine being used by students. The sheriff said a similar case was reported at the high school last year.
“The way I understand it, if you take a quantity of them you can get a high,” Matheny said. “So, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Dramamine being used by school students.”