Middle schoolers get high on grab bag of pills

Back when Houstonist was in junior high, the worst thing kids did was sneaking a cigarette behind the gym (or occasionally sniffing formaldehyde). But today's youth are much more stupid daring — case in point, the 11 students at Spring Woods Middle School who were taken to the hospital yesterday after popping pills a classmate was handing out. Ah, youth.

"Somebody showed up with some, a lot, and just started handing them out like candy," said Chuck Brawner, chief of the Spring Branch school district's police department.

"It was just kind of a grab bag. They didn't know what they were taking. It was a bad mistake."

Teachers noticed students acting strangely just after lunch: Some were drowsy, some slurred their speech and others had trouble walking. "One of the students had some difficulty with the steps in the school, and he was approached. Based on his physical symptoms, it was determined as a precautionary measure, to call the ambulance," Spring Branch ISD spokesman Bob Sharp told KTRK. "Once that happened with one student, it started to domino." The students were taken to Spring Branch Medical Center and are expected to be just fine; the pills, police said, were a mix of Xanax and unknown medicines being analyzed by Harris County authorities.

Though no one has been charged with a crime yet, Spring Branch ISD officials said action will be taken against the student or students responsible for the incident. "We will take it very seriously," Superintendent Duncan Klussmann told the Chronicle. "We have zero tolerance when it comes to drugs and alcohol."