PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — Most parents of students in Pontiac's International Technology Academy's middle school will soon be reading an email from the district about how two children ingested marijuana edibles in school.
"That the students were that brazen to be able to do that in front of the teacher while the teacher was in the classroom," said Michelle Broxton, the parent of a seventh grader.
The discovery came Thursday afternoon after teaching staff learned that three students ingested marijuana edibles. Two of the students were displaying "unusual behavior," district officials said.
Emergency medical services transported the two students to a nearby hospital. District officials said they are doing fine.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident. Administrative hearings will be taking place for the students involved.
The edibles in schools appear to be part of an increasing trend in districts across the country.
VIDEO: Detroit public schools says student marijuana use becoming a serious problem, causing hospitalizations
"Sadly, this is an issue that is plaguing districts everywhere," Kimberly Leverette, Ed.D, interim superintendent, wrote in a statement to 7 News Detroit Friday. "Superintendents across our region are continually working for solutions to this highly concerning problem. Rarely a week goes by that we don’t see a story on the news about a district where students have been involved with edibles of some kind.
"In our district, we are continually instituting added security and safety measures to work to keep everyone in our buildings safe at all times, but this is an issue that is really impossible to prevent at the school level," Leverette wrote. "Things need to change beyond our walls,"
Just two weeks ago in Detroit, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, Ed.D., expressed concern over an alarming increase in his district with students using vape pens and consuming marijuana edibles.
Vitti even sent a letter to elected officials, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, detailing his concerns and several proposals.
We spoke with Vitti earlier this month in the video player below:
"As the Superintendent and School Board of Michigan's largest school district, we are compelled to address an issue that has become increasingly alarming within our schools: the proliferation and consumption of marijuana edibles and vape pens," Vitti wrote.
"Since the legalization of marijuana, our District has observed a distressing escalation in drug-related infractions," he said.
Vitti proposed stiff laws requiring "all marijuana edibles (not just packaging) to be unmistakably labeled as such. Further, manufacturers should be prohibited from using packaging for marijuana edibles that imitates non-marijuana candy to eliminate any possibility of confusion."
He also pushed for funding for detection systems so that schools could acquire detection systems for vape pens and marijuana, with the financing derived directly from the profits and taxes collected from marijuana sales.
