The mother of a sixth grader accused of bringing crack cocaine to a Philadelphia school denied her son had anything to do with it even if he did have something to do with another drug.
"He's in the clear," said the 13-year-old's mother Asheen Bell.
Bell's 13-year-old gave a sandwich bag of crack cocaine to an 8-year-old at S. Weir Mitchell Elementary Thursday right before noon, according to police.
"He had not bring the drugs to school, he did not touch them, he did not distribute them out to no one, they have it wrong, he did not do it," said Bell.
Investigators said Bell's son promised the younger boy $7 if he held onto the drug during school and returned it to the teen at the end of the day, investigators said. The students planned to meet at a corner store in the Kingsessing neighborhood.
School administrators alerted police after the 8-year-old showed the drug to some classmates, asking two of them to smell the crack cocaine — one of those students told the school.
Bell blamed one of the 8 year olds with bringing the crack to school.
"Thank goodness that one of the students actually made sure staff was made aware of it and staff intervened," said superintendent William Hite.
All four kids were checked out at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to make sure no one ingested the drug. All were fine. Sources familiar with the investigation who did not want to be named because they aren't authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the teen tested positive for marijuana.
"The case was crack, not marijuana," said Bell. "He didn't have anything to do with it."
Officials are concerned with finding out the truth.
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"Our concern is where this kid, at this age, is able to get drugs," said Philadelphia Police Lt. John Walker.
“It’s just a sad situation when you have kids at this age who are exposed to this type of stuff this early in life,” said Walker.
Investigators also found eight sealed bags of crack cocaine in a school bathroom and called in a plumber to see if more had been washed down a drain.
“We obviously know this kid got it from somewhere and him asking an 8-year-old to hold it for him, obviously he has some knowledge of the trade,” Walker said.
As word spread through the neighborhood, some parents rushed over to find out what was going on. "Why didn't they call me and where are little kids getting drugs from," questioned an exasperated Denise Littlepage who has children in the first, second and fourth grades.
“Cocaine in school?! They need to tell us what’s going on when something’s affecting our kids," said Donna Henderson who saw police cars in front of the school where her child attends kindergarten. "And then when I go into the office and asked what was going on, they wouldn’t tell us anything!"
A letter explaining what happened was sent out to parents Thursday afternoon, said school district spokesman Fernando Gallard.
Lt. Walker said police would help the school work to make the incident a teaching moment. "We'll do everything we can to make this a sterile environment again."
