A Texas mother says her 4-year-old son ended up in the hospital after eating a THC lollipop that was allegedly inside a birthday party goodie bag from his Montessori school.
Savannah Mallach told CBS Austin that her son began hallucinating and had an elevated heart rate after eating the candy, which she said came from another student’s birthday celebration at an Austin school.
“It was awful,” Mallach said.
She said her son looked unusually sleepy almost immediately after eating the lollipop.
“He looked high,” she recalled. “He’s 4 years old, and I was thinking in my head, ‘Why do you look high?’”
Mallach said she checked the wrapper inside the goodie bag and realized the lollipop contained THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. She immediately called the school to warn staff so the candy could be kept away from other children.
Her son was taken to the hospital, where she said his heart rate was dangerously high.
“His heart rate was so high. I could feel it in his chest just beating,” she said.
At the hospital, the boy was given an IV as doctors tried to keep him comfortable while the substance worked its way out of his system.
“He wasn’t himself,” Mallach said. “He would wake up and say things that didn’t make sense, he was hallucinating. He wasn’t my happy child. It was awful, it happened to my kid.”
Mallach said her son’s class had more than 20 children, and she believes the school should have alerted other parents immediately. Instead, she claims staff waited nearly two days before sending a vague message through an app.
“It could have been all those kids, and the school chose not to reach out to them for almost two days,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense as to why.”
Mallach said several upset parents, including herself, have since pulled their children from the school.
“There was a big miscommunication because there was none,” she said, claiming the school had not issued an apology. “The parents are angry because they could’ve had that in their bag all week.”
Police and school leaders confirmed the incident happened at The Nest at Anderson Mill in Austin.
According to the Austin Police Department, investigators determined the circumstances were “consistent with an accidental introduction of the item into the goodie bag rather than a deliberate criminal act,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Police said the case was administratively closed after the investigation did not produce enough evidence to support criminal charges under Texas law.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is still reviewing the incident.
The school’s CEO, Shavonda Lawson, said the school has been reviewing what happened and looking at ways to improve safety.
“In the days since, we have spent time listening to families, reviewing procedures, evaluating our systems, and identifying additional safeguards to strengthen our program moving forward,” Lawson told CBS News. “We believe that trust is built through accountability, transparency, and action.”
Mallach said her son is now doing much better, but the experience has left her shaken. She said he will be attending a different school that she believes is a better fit for their family.
“My message to the school is to do better, to do better in the future, and own up to any mistakes that have been made,” she said. “I hope that this doesn’t happen to any other child or any other family.”
Hey! Where’s MY birthday bag???