13-year-old student brings cocaine-filled balloons onto Carl F. Smith playground 13 students exposed, two taken to Sierra View
A 13-year-old student at Carl F. Smith Middle School in Terra Bella is being questioned by Tulare County Sheriff’s Office detectives after they determined he brought cocaine-filled balloons onto the campus playground, resulting in multiple student exposures to the narcotics and two hospitalizations.
In a press conference Friday afternoon, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux explained that at approximately 8:40 a.m. Friday morning, two students at Carl F. Smith Middle School in Terra Bella discovered two orange balloons on the playground.
“One balloon was inside the other balloon, and it’s pretty much put together the same as you would imagine how drug dealers would package a balloon,” said Sheriff Mike Boudreax, adding the deflated balloons had what appeared to be a white powdery substance on both the inside and the outside of the balloons.
The students notified school staff, who in turn contacted TCSO. TCSO responded to the scene, and when deputies arrived they performed a presumptive test on the white powdery substance and it tested positive for cocaine.
Boudreaux explained that school staff were alerted because two of the students who were examining the balloons on the playground began to feel dizzy. Ambulance crews were called out to the school and conducted field evaluations on 13 students who were identified as being exposed to the cocaine to ensure their pulse and respiration were normal. All were determined to be negative for being under the influence of narcotics.
Two students, at the request of ambulance personnel, were taken to Sierra View Medical Center for precautionary evaluations, and the parents of those students have been notified.
Narcotics detectives and drug-sniffing were also sent to the school, and one of the dogs alerted on the shirt of a 13-year-old student, who has been identified by TCSO as the person who brought the balloons onto campus.
Boudreax said TCSO has also identified the point of origin for the narcotics. Detectives are at that residence and the home has been secured, and search warrants were being written and will be conducted.
The 13-year-old boy was being interviewed by detectives Friday afternoon. Boudreaux said no arrests have been made at this point.
TCSO’S TAGNET (Tulare Area Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Team) Unit have taken over the investigation. A thorough investigation of the campus, including drone surveillance and room-by-room searches, has uncovered no further evidence of narcotics.
“We’re confident at this point there is no dangerous exposure to children, but having that on campus truly could have resulted in a far more dangerous situation,” said Boudreaux.