WESTLAND, Mich. (WXYZ) — When students arrived at one Wayne-Westland school, right away staff knew something wasn’t right. EMS had to treat several Adams Upper Elementary School students after they had allegedly eaten marijuana edibles. The school serves fifth and sixth-graders in the Wayne-Westland Community School District.
The school made sure they received medical attention. Now, police are working to find out where the children got the marijuana-laced food, and who was responsible for it. CPS could even be involved working to find out if a parent was neglectful.
“Our parents and families need to be very cognizant and vigilant in looking at what their children are doing, bringing (and) ingesting, " said Dr. Shelley Holt, superintendent of Wayne-Westland Schools. "Because at the end of the day this started at home. It did not start at school.”
Police are waiting to see if this will happen more often as a result of the legalization of marijuana.
In recent decades, even with the legalization of medical marijuana, use amongst children under 13 has decreased.
In 1997, according to the CDC, 9.7 percent of youth nationwide reported trying marijuana before they were 13 years old. By 2007, the number was 8.3 percent. In 2017, it was 6.8 percent. Parents are key in making sure the trend doesn’t change.
Superintendent Holt says parents also need to educate children about how hard it can be to identify marijuana edibles. As a result they may want to avoid sharing food with anyone they don’t completely trust.
“We are in a day and age, unfortunately, where we have to tell our kids that you might not be able to share food with other people because we just don’t know what it is that may be in there," she said. "So you just have to eat your own food."
