Virginia man, woman arrested after boy brings fentanyl-laced gummies to school lunch, poisoning children

Virginia authorities arrested two adults after seven elementary school students were poisoned after eating fentanyl-laced gummy bears, according to the New York Post.

One of the seven students brought a bag of gummy bears to Central Elementary School and shared them with his fourth-grade classmates at lunch. Five of the students were transported to the hospital, including two by ambulance, according to the Amherst County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Dallas Hill told CNN that the sickened students developed symptoms that included nausea, vomiting, headache, and muscle spasms.

Clifford Dugan, 50, and Nicole Sanders, 26, were arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency and abuse of a child. Dugan received an additional felony firearm possession charge, while Sanders received an additional possession of schedule narcotics charge, according to police documents.

Dugan is being held at the Amherst County Adult Detention Center with no bond. Sanders is being held at the same facility with $1000 and $1500 bond.


(Clifford Dugan, right, Nicole Sanders, left)

"During the course of the preliminary investigation, it was found that each of these students had ingested gummy bears. The SRO on scene observed residue in the baggie that contained the gummies," police said in a statement.

Officials stated that a field test kit on the bag revealed a positive result for fentanyl, and the sample will be forwarded to a lab run by the Drug Enforcement Administration for more analysis.

Authorities executed a search warrant at a home on Pendleton Drive in Amherst County which led to Dugan and Sanders's arrest.

School Superintendent William Wells issued a statement to families and said that it has been "confirmed that the bag was brought from home by a student. We will work with the Sheriff's Office as they continue their investigation."

Wells said that all of the students were released from the hospital on Tuesday night.
 

"This is not a school issue…the fentanyl came from somebody's house," Wells said at a press conference. "I ask our parents to take charge. It's here and it's real."

The school district "will make it a point of emphasis to remind our students not to share food items. Drug awareness will continue to be a point of emphasis across the division at all schools," he added.

Kristina Wright, the mother of one of the poisoned students, wrote about the incident in a post on Meta and provided an update on her son's status. She said that her son, Hayden, had eaten 10 gummy bears and urged parents to tell their children not to accept anything from anyone.

"Hayden is home, the tests all came back normal with no traces of fentanyl thank God," Wright wrote.


(Courtesy: Facebook Kristina Wright)

"I do want to say, ACPS did not do anything wrong, as soon as they were notified of the incident, I was called and made aware. They took the ultimate precaution and had EMT at the school soon as I arrived," she wrote.

"I was notified when they let me know it was just gummies from Sam's Club. As well as notified soon as they tested the baggy and it contained fentanyl," Wright wrote.

She warned parents to not allow their children to "accept ANYTHING from anyone, it could be life threatening. THIS could have been so much worse."

Hayden said in an interview with WSET that the gummies "tasted weird. Then it tasted good. The aftertaste, it tasted really good."

However, the young student said that they fell ill after lunch.

"We felt nauseous, sick in our stomachs, hot," Hayden told the outlet. "When I was in the ambulance, I was really scared. They could, like, barely put my things on because I was shaking so much."