Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Team coverageFour Junior High School students are in a hospital tonight after overdosing on prescription pills. The girls are all in stable condition now, but the Salt Lake Sheriff's Office says their worries are far from over: They could face serious felony charges.
Investigators tonight say the girls took the prescription pills thinking they were heavy-duty painkillers. They weren't. Instead, doctors are still trying to figure out what they were, and sheriff's deputies want to know where they came from.
The sight of fire engines and ambulances in front of Matheson Junior High School was shocking to parents picking up students.
Parent Janet Kinder said, "They've got so much of their life ahead of them, the damage that can be done, they have no idea."
According to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, four students took prescription pills at school, believing they were painkillers. Shortly after, they started having troubling breathing.
Salt Lake County Sheriff's deputy Levi Hughes said, "This is an overdose, it was medication that wasn't prescribed to them, they shouldn't have had and shouldn't have had access to, to be honest."
Other students told administrators what was happening, and paramedics were called to the school.
Principal Marijean Woolf said, "We were really proud of the students because they came down and did problem solving, came down and let us know that the students had made a poor choice, and they were worried for their peers."
Seventh-grader Olivia Kinder said, "I think it's not supposed to be allowed, and kids who do that are stupid."
At the hospital it was determined the pills the girl took were not painkillers. The description of the drugs, combined with the symptoms, still have officials stumped, but the four girls are expected to be OK. However, their legal troubles may just be beginning.
Hughes said, "If it was given to them or sold to them, then there'll be charges pending against the person who gave it to them. If the girls that had it themselves, distributing, then they'll be charged."
Deputy Hughes says charges in this case would be felonies. The girls' names are not being released because they are juveniles. The school's principal says she plans to use what happened today to teach students the dangers of abusing drugs, prescription or otherwise.
E-mail: sdallof@ksl.com
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
