LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A student brought "medicated gummies" to a Kentucky elementary school on Friday afternoon -- and several students ate them.
According to an email sent to families from Wilkerson Elementary School Principal Sara Alvey, the student handed them out to others in the class.
The email said the gummies "resembled candy."
When school officials found out, the email stated the school nurse "immediately" checked on the students, and they contacted the students' guardians. They also said they called EMS to check on each of the students in the class.
The grandmother of one of the affected students said she's not upset with the child or their parent. Instead, she called for changes in the product packaging.
Kathryn Byers said when she showed up at Wilkerson Elementary Friday afternoon, she found her 8-year-old grandson behaving strangely.
"He's not his normal self. He's quiet now. But at the school, he had his sweatshirt tied around his neck, and he was gonna fly. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh," Byers said. "He chewed his and spit it out. He didn't care for the taste. But there was other kids that you can tell they really acquired it. They was bouncing off the walls, some was just staring off into space. And I was I was really worried."
When paramedics checked the students out, her worries subsided. Now, she wants to prevent something like this from happening again.
"I'm mad at the mom," Byers said. "She should put her stuff up a little better, you know, don't that let her see that she had some kind of candy as the little girl probably thought."
But Byers really blames the manufacturer for packaging that she said appeals to kids.
School officials said the student who brought the gummies will be "disciplined according to the Student Support and Behavior Intervention Handbook."
Byers said she hopes the punishment isn't severe.
"I'm not angry that little girl," she said. "She's a baby to me."
Byers said she's happy the mother notified the school as soon as she realized what happened and she hopes she learned from this.
She also hopes her grandson learned a lesson and to not "take candy from strangers."
"Don't take candy from your friends at school no more either because you never know what it really is," Byers said.
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