The students, all between the ages of 12 and 14, were “in mild-to-moderate distress,” according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Seven were taken to area hospitals, while three were evaluated and released at the junior high.
Authorities couldn’t immediately say for certain what drug the Van Nuys Middle School students ingested, but they believe it may have been marijuana, Fox 11 reported.
“It was possibly an edible cannabis. [They were] lethargic as if we were seeing their faces looked a little glazed over,” said LAFD Public Information Officer Erik Scott.
Personnel who evaluated the kids at the school confirmed fentanyl was not found in their systems. Narcan was not administered for any of the students, the Los Angeles Unified School District said in a statement, NBC Los Angeles said. The district said it requested medical assistance out of an “abundance of caution.”
“This is not any sort of fentanyl-affiliated overdose. We want to make sure everybody knows that,” Scott said.
Fire officials originally thought just five students were struggling with overdose symptoms but found the others after 50 firefighters canvassed the entire school “including hallways, classrooms, offices, and recreation areas to ensure there were no students unaccounted for.”
Officials told ABC 7 that some of the students may have hidden in classrooms when emergency crews arrived.
Officials are still investigating the incident and how the students got their hands on the drugs. Hospital officials will determine what substance they ingested.
LAFD Capt. Erik Scott say the overdoses were possibly from edible cannabis products and investigators are trying to determine whether all 10 students got the substances from the same source.
He said firefighters searched the campus to make sure there were no other ill students.
Crews were able to determine that the substance was not related to fentanyl, a highly addictive and potentially lethal drug, and paramedics did not administer the opioid overdose-reversing drug naloxone, officials said.
Ten students between the ages of 12 and 15 years old were found at the school "in mild-to-moderate distress," per a release by the Los Angeles Fire Department. Seven students were transported to local hospitals, while three were treated and released on the scene.
An LAFD spokesperson for the department told NBC Los Angeles that the overdoses possibly involved "edible cannabis products," though the department's official release only states that the incident was not fentanyl related.
"Today, we were made aware of a group of students who suffered a medical incident at our school," a spokesperson for Los Angeles Unified School District said in a statement to PEOPLE. "In an abundance of caution, we requested medical assistance."
The spokesperson said they cannot yet confirm what the substance was that the students took as that "is still under investigation." They also noted that Narcan — which is used to treat an opioid overdose — was not administered to any of the students based on a preliminary evaluation.
"We take the health and safety of our students very seriously," the spokesperson added. "Our students are always encouraged to speak with our school staff if they are feeling unwell or need assistance."
A 12-year-old student named Christopher Angel told the Los Angeles Times that he heard some of his classmates had eaten edibles.
"Only three people were drugged in my class," he told the Times. "They were acting weird, tired, high."
Under California state law, only those over the age of 21 are allowed to purchase cannabis, and those between the ages of 18 and 21 can also do so but only with a physician's recommendation. Smoking cannabis is also illegal within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center or youth center while kids are present.
According to Poison Control, a child that eats even a small amount of THC — the ingredient in cannabis edibles — can experience dangerous symptoms like vomiting, dizziness and difficulty breathing.
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