Father Gave 'Illegal Substance' To Young Son In Incident That Hospitalized Elementary Students: Maywood Cops

MAYWOOD, IL — A Maywood father is in custody after he allegedly gave his young son a bag of cocaine that several students at Garfield Elementary School ingested. Emilio Contreras, 37, has been charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance, five counts of child endangerment, and one count of verbal assault to a staff member.

The charges stem from an incident that took place Thursday, Sept. 21, in which students were sent to a hospital after ingesting an "unknown substance" that was suspected to be cocaine.

NBC reports that Maywood Police confirmed the "white powder the students ingested" was an illegal substance, but were awaiting further lab results to determine whether or not it was cocaine.

Parents told CBS that the boy who brought the substance had forced children to ingest or snort it. The children were later sent to a nearby hospital. In a letter posted on Garfield Elementary's website, Principal Marshal Alexander wrote that "all of the students directly impacted by this are fine."

Carletta May told WGN her grandson was forced to ingest the illegal substance. She said the incident took place around 12:20 p.m., but that parents and guardians were first notified three hours later.

Garfield Elementary did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday and the letter that once appeared on the school's website was no longer available at press time.

>>Image credit: By Neo tokio (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons