11 students fall ill after ingesting unknown pills at Kinloch Park Middle School

8 students taken to hospital as precaution

MIAMI – Multiple students complained about feeling ill after they ingested a prescription pill Tuesday morning at Kinloch Park Middle School in Miami, Miami-Dade County Public School officials said.

School officials said a teacher noticed that some students were exhibiting strange behavior and called the school nurse.

"The kid fell back down in the chair when they came to take him," one student, Gabriel Duenes, said. 

Miami Fire Rescue Capt. Ignatius Carroll said four students, who were in separate classrooms, were first taken to the office.

He said it was later determined that the students had been together earlier in the morning and had ingested some kind of prescription pill.

"As we were evaluating them, we understand that additional students were exhibiting the same symptoms and they were all brought to the office," Carroll said.  

School officials said paramedics treated 11 students, including 6 boys and 5 girls, at the school. 

The students complained about feeling extreme tiredness, nausea, dizziness and other complications. 

"This really does serve as a reminder to parents that they need to speak to their children about the importance of not taking anything or ingesting anything that they don't know what it is," Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokeswoman Daisy Gonzalez-Diego said. 

All students were stable after the incident, but the initial four and four others were taken to a hospital as a precaution, authorities said.

"I was in school and my mom called me, telling me that my little brother is in the hospital, and I didn't know why, but she explained to me that somebody gave him a pill," Hector Lopez said.

Other parents rushed to the school to make sure their children weren't one of the students affected. 

"I came and got my daughter really quick because I'm like, no way. This is not happening here. This has never happened here before," one mother said. 

School officials said they have identified the student who brought the pills to school, who they said will be disciplined in accordance to the Code of Student Conduct. 


About the Authors:

Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.