News & Politics - First Grader Hands Out Crack to Classmates Thinking It Was Candy

Lain · 03-23-2005, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Police this afternoon continued to search for the mother and other relatives of a first-grader who found 40 small bags of crack cocaine in his school book bag and allegedly handed the drug out to his classmates, thinking it was candy.

"He was a darling little child; he had no idea of what he had," said Chicago Heights District 170 Supt. Dollie Helsel.

Police have been searching for the boy's guardians since the incident occurred Friday at Lincoln School in the southern suburb. The child is now in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, authorities said.

No arrests have been made yet, and officials said the child would not be charged because he sincerely believed he was passing out candy, not a dangerous drug.

"He lives in a household where apparently there's drug dealing, and when he sees these little bags of rock cocaine around the house, they're telling him it's candy," Chicago Heights Deputy Police Chief Michael Camilli said of the adults.

Camilli called the situation "insane," and said, "I've been here 29 years; I've never seen anything like it."

No one was harmed in the incident, and police believe they retrieved all of the cocaine, Camilli said. He said officers believe someone at the child's home had used the book bag as a hiding place for the drug.

School officials today described the boy as a good pupil who was well behaved, was polite to adults and always wore the proper school uniform. They also said they saw nothing out of the ordinary with his mother, who had visited the school in the past to pick up her child's report card and talk to staff.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...ck=2&cset=true

I can't blame him. Cocaine does look like powder sugar after all