Fourth-Grader Shares Cocaine With Classmates at D.C. School

Four students at a Washington, D.C., elementary school were briefly hospitalized after snorting and swallowing cocaine brought to the school by a fourth-grader.

The unidentified fourth-grade student was charged with drug possession after allegedly bringing the cocaine to Thomson Elementary School and sharing it with his or her classmates.

The children, whose names and ages have not been released, are all in good condition and were taken to the hospital only as a precaution, officials said in a statement. They said school staff called the authorities after the students became sick. When police arrived, they confirmed that the substance was cocaine.

Parents received a voice-mail message and a letter about the incident from the school's principal, Albert DuPont. "This is not a situation that is typical at Thomson, and we take it very seriously," DuPont wrote, according to a letter obtained by AOL News today. "At school we will address drug awareness as a whole-school issue."

Terrance Boseman, the father of a kindergarten student at the school, said he was in disbelief. "I think it's terrible. I've never heard of anything like this before," he told The Washington Post. "It's a great school, but you just think that this is an unbelievable situation."

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Thomson Elementary School, which serves grades K-5, was once recommended to President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama by a Washington Post writer as a good place to send their two daughters. A 2008 story in the newspaper called the school an "educational gem" with a "full-size gym that would make the basketball-loving president-elect drool."

Officials said counselors will be on hand at the school on Monday to talk to students about drug prevention and awareness.

A spokeswoman for the D.C. public schools declined to comment further today.