Concerned mom says Fulton County eighth grader unknowingly given edibles at school

FAIRBURN, Ga. - A Fairburn mom says she sent her daughter to Bear Creek Middle School on Friday to learn, just like she would any other day. Instead of returning with homework, she also came home high.

"She says it was like the sour straws," Angel Butts told FOX 5.

Butts says her daughter was one of about six middle school students who were given an edible, causing some of them to throw up. She says her 13-year-old had never done drugs before and was only told what it was after she ate it.

"Her eyes were visibly red," she said. "She was moving slow."

To know for sure what her daughter was given, Butts bought a home drug test which she says came back positive for THC.

Angel Butts told FOX 5 she gave her daughter a drug test when she came home. She tested positive for THC. (Credit: Angel Butts)

"I was really upset when I saw this popping up on this drug screen that she had tested positive for marijuana," she said.

Doctors say kids eating edibles is an increasingly dangerous problem.

"It does feel like we are seeing more patients who have been exposed, and we do know that nationally there has been an increase in children exposed to edibles," said Dr. Maneesha Agarwal, an Emergency Medicine Physician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. "Kids can become incredibly sick. They can have altered mental status, become very sleepy and even have trouble maintaining their breathing and may need to be intubated, and end up in our ICUs."

Bear Creek Middle School

Butts says she is upset with how Fulton County Schools handled the situation and the lack of communication, stating she would have preferred school officials to call her about the incident as soon as they were privy to it.

She says the message here is to make sure students don’t take anything from anyone at school.

"That's the main warning," she said. "[Do] not eat anything from anybody at school, no matter who it is, because you don't know what people are putting into stuff."

The school principal sent a letter to parents Monday. He says incidents like this will not be tolerated, and the appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.