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Livingston Parish parent furious after child ingests prescription drug on school bus
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WALKER- A parent is demanding that the Livingston Parish School System add protocols to address a terrifying situation she experienced last week involving her five-year-old.
Morgan Wesley said her son was taking the bus to Walker Elementary School when he and another student came across a pink pill on the bus. The pill was Vyvanse, a controlled substance used to treat students with behavior issues between the ages of 6-12. However, that was not discovered until much later.
Wesley said her five-year-old who is in kindergarten ingested some of it. When the bus driver found out, Wesley said calls were made to her supervisor. Morgan said the driver was instructed to let the principal know.
However, when Wesley's son got to school, she claims medical professionals never evaluated him. He initially told adults he didn't take the pill, but later admitted he did.
"My son was sent straight to class," Wesley said. "His teacher was never notified."
We went looking for answers from the Livingston Parish School System about this. Superintendent Rick Wentzel refused to do an on camera interview. However, he did meet with Chief Investigator Chris Nakamoto in his office. Wentzel became animated, slamming his hands on the table and yelling. He was upset with the way social media was portraying the principal in relation to this situation. When asked why Wentzel didn't want to do an interview, he said he was upset with the way his friend was handled in a prior story that WBRZ aired.
Wentzel would not say who that person was or what the story was about.
Conversations recorded between the Assistant Superintendent Stephen Parrill show the school system knows it messed up with how they handled the five-year-old.
"We made a lot of mistakes on this," Parrill was recorded saying. "We should have brought him to the office immediately."
Tonight, Wentzel promised that protocols would be put in place to address this concern.
Wesley wants to make sure this never happens again. She said her family chose to live in Livingston Parish because the schools are great, and she said that this is the first issue she's had with them.
"I requested a transfer for my son out of the school he's at to another school in the area," Wesley said. "I want the transfer granted and want a protocol in place in case another child comes in contact with a substance so they know what to do, and they do the proper thing."
Late Wednedsay, WBRZ received a statement from the Livingston Parish School System regarding the incident. It explained Wentzel announced a plan to establish guidelines for when a student comes into a contact with a controlled substance. Those guidelines include immediately bringing the student to the office, assessing whether 911 should be called, and calling parents or other agencies.
"We certainly want to do what we can to safeguard our students," Wentzel said in the statement. “Fortunately, last week’s incident did not have any negative consequences for this child, but it did cause us to pause and realize that our current protocols do not specifically address such an incident. While we can’t always address issues in advance, and we don’t have protocols for every incident, we do want to address issues as we can. This will ensure that our employees respond in the best way and that our students get the attention they need for their wellbeing.”
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