Officials at a Dorchester County school said that nine children violated the drug policy for having a sugar and kool-aid mixture called “Happy Crack.”
Privacy laws prohibit the officials from disclosing whether the children were merely eating the candy, or also giving it to their friends, but punishment was reportedly reduced from expulsion to suspension.
One mother told an ABC affiliate, "The way she called me, I thought my son died. She said there's this epidemic going on at school with happy crack. I Googled it. I'm like Kool-Aid and sugar, are you serious? I was appalled. I was floored. I really didn't think it would go to this extreme."
Regulations at North Charleston’s Eagle Nest Elementary School read, "No student will market or distribute any substance which is represented to be or is substantially similar in color, shape, size or marking of a controlled substance…Look alike substances or substances that mimic the effect of drugs will be treated as illegal substances."
One woman observed that the "children's intent was not malicious, but they were treated like criminals. They are ten years old. To go about it the way they did, ostracize the children, call the school board, when I know of other school districts who have had the same issue and those children weren't treated as harshly."
