DENVER—Six students at Castle View high school in Castle Rock are in the hospital after they swallowed a prescription drug one of them brought to school.
In all, the school identified eight students who took the drug, Douglas County School District spokeswoman Whei Wong said. No one had overdosed and those taken to hospitals were there for observation, she said.
Wong did not immediately know what the students ingested.
Larry Borland, chief of security for Douglas County Schools, told The Denver Post the students took the painkiller Oxycodone.
School officials called the students’ parents and the Castle Rock Fire Department was dispatched to the school.
The dangers of prescription drugs have come to the forefront after the death of Heath Ledger, the 28-year-old “Brokeback Mountain” star, who died Jan. 22 from an accidental overdose. The New York medical examiner said he had taken six types of painkillers and sedatives.
