Teens arrested for selling Visalia students drug-laced food

Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Teens arrested for selling Visalia students drug-laced food
Visalia Police say three teenagers sold marijuana-laced brownies and lollipops to their classmates at Mt. Whitney High School on Friday.

VISALIA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Visalia Police says three teenagers sold marijuana-laced brownies and lollipops to their classmates at Mt. Whitney High School on Friday and seven of the students got sick.

Mimi Bonds who is the director of student services at the Visalia Unified School District says it started with one sick student in the office, "One student in particular and that led to other students that were referred with some kind of reaction," Bonds added.

Sgt. Damon Maurice says the students were high on pot brownies and lollipops laced with honey oil. "These kids were obviously in over their heads," Sgt. Maurice said, "they had no idea what they were doing and they were quickly overcome by that concentrated cannabis."

Paramedics picked up six of the students and one went home with parents. Officers also showed up and traced the edibles back to three teenagers on campus - two boys and one girl, ages 14,15 and 17. They were arrested and taken to juvenile hall. Mark Jansma who is a parent of a student at the school said, "Kids will be kids but it's not right, it shouldn't happen."

He saw the ambulances when he was picking up his daughter on Friday but he wasn't sure what was happening and the school, he says didn't explain it either. "I was surprised because I didn't know anything about it," Jansma said.

The school district, however, did put out information. Bonds says the students who were sick are ok. They aren't in trouble with the law but the district might punish everyone involved. "Were they sold? were they shared? All that information determines where we take our next steps," Bonds said.

In the meantime, officers are looking at the evidence, including a backpack that was found with a few edibles inside it and the teens who were arrested could face criminal charges.