Angela Rose was left inconsolable after discovering that her 9-year-old daughter at Krahn Elementary School ate candy laced with marijuana that had been given to the school by a fellow student.
What happened: When Amiya Hillary, 9, ate a THC edible candy given to her by a classmate last Thursday, she was punished for three days and may have been transferred to a disciplinary alternative school, according to her mother, Angela Rose. Rose told the court the district decided to reduce the punishment to one day. Because children at Klein ISD are not permitted to eat or drink outside of school, she claims the administration informed her that Amiya would be disciplined.
The mother opposes districts actions: “They should have been calling me with an apology instead of a consequence,” Rose, Amiya’s mother, said. Her argument explains how the situation should have be handled differently and that her daughter was put in harm and wasn’t the one who caused harm. She states that there is no rule in the code of conduct which stops children from getting food from outside school and even if she tells her child not to eat food from other people, “it wasn’t in the code of conduct. And number two, if that is the case, why is the district allowing kids to exchange candy for events?”
What the district says: Statements made by the district indicate an investigation has taken place. Due to the continuing nature of the inquiry, the district also refused to say specifically which rule of conduct was violated.
“An investigation is underway regarding an incident involving a student bringing a prohibited substance to school and providing it to another student,” said Justin Elbert, Kelin ISD executive director of communications, in a statement. “At least one student appears to have intentionally ingested the substance. School administrators contacted all involved families to inform them of the incident, and student discipline in accordance with the student code of conduct is pending.”
Deeper in the story: When Krahn’s nurse’s office called Rose on April 28 to tell her to bring up Amiya from school because she was vomiting up, Rose was shocked. While Amiya didn’t have a fever, the nurse advised Rose that she couldn’t attend school the next day. A virus may have infected Amiya according to Rose. She nursed her back to health at her house. “She immediately went to sleep [and] she stayed sleep for hours,” she said.
Rose said that Amiya was healthy enough the next day to go back to school. Amiya informed her mother that she discovered the wrapper from the food she ate the day before when she went to school. Apparently, the wrapper was from a “medicated” candy, and Amiya’s classmates advised her that she was not permitted to consume it and should return the wrapper to a teacher. In Amiya’s words, “just throw it in the trash,” was the teacher’s advice to her. “I wasn’t going to turn down candy,” Amiya said.
“The day goes by and Amiya goes to lunch, and by this time all of the kids in her class are discussing it and telling her that’s why she was probably sick,” Rose said. “One of the kids told a teacher, and that teacher told another teacher, and that’s how the school found out she ate it.”
At approximately 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Rose claims she received a phone call from the school principal. When asked about Amiya’s symptoms, the principal reportedly dropped a bombshell. “She said, ‘I was calling to let you know that Amiya had [eaten] some cannabis candy that had THC in it.’ I was like ‘What!’” She claims she was given a candy similar to the Sour Punch straw by her friend. According to her story, she ate it in the toilet and didn’t realize it was a cannabis candy bar. “My friends told me that I was just staring at the wall the whole time,” Amiya said. She claims that things just grew worse. “I fell asleep and started seeing things in the corner of the room and seeing things in front of me, and then I blacked out on my desk. Before lunch, my tongue started feeling weird and my spit tasted nasty,” she said.
