PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — At least one student at a Southeast Portland K-8 school ate an unknown white substance given to them by another student, officials said.
Diana Kruger, the principal of Arleta School on SE 66th Avenue, said in a letter to parents on Monday that she contacted police as soon as she heard about it. She said all of the families of the students who may have eaten the substance were also contacted.
The student who ate the substance didn’t show any immediate signs of being sick but was taken to a doctor by their family, Kruger said.
The school was working with the Portland Police Bureau to find out what the substance was and how a student got it.
While Kruger didn’t elaborate on what the substance may have been, parents feared it was drugs.
One mother told KOIN 6 News her son was sitting at the same table as the child who ate the substance. She described the situation as “way too scary.”
“Thank God my son said no,” she said.
Other parents were only just learning about the incident days later.
“That sort of thing is going to happen anywhere you go — you can’t move away from drugs,” said Margaret Catchpole. “They are going to pick up what’s around; don’t leave drugs around the kiddos.”
Catchpole said her child might start school at Arleta next year. While she felt the likelihood of something like this happening to her child is low, Catchpole said she’d still have a talk with her child to try to prevent it.
“I definitely tell my kids, ‘Don’t put things in your mouth, you don’t know what they are,'” she said.