Student charged in drug case
Peer pressure caused a local high school student to steal and then pass out prescription drugs last week, her mother said Thursday.
Nevertheless, Elexa-Ray Loyd, 15, of 7139 Melissa Elaine Drive, was charged with possession of a legend drug with intent to deliver, a third-degree felony. She faces five years in prison if convicted as charged.
Loyd and four other Arnold High School students were hospitalized after they ingested several doses of Elavil shortly before school began on Nov. 28, according to investigators with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. A sixth student also ingested the drug but did not require medical treatment.
According to a Sheriff’s Office incident report, the Elavil was prescribed to Loyd’s father for pain. It also can be used to combat depression.
Shadonna Loyd said Thursday it was peer pressure that led her daughter to take the drug from a refrigerator at home and hand it out to students.
“The children are scared to death of saying no,” Shadonna Loyd said.
She added that her daughter never has been in trouble at school before.
“My child has never had so much as a scratch on her school record before,” she said.
All of the students eventually were released from the hospital and all are in good condition, Shadonna Loyd said. She added that her daughter had learned a valuable lesson from the incident.
Elexa-Ray Loyd and most of the other students involved in the incident will be sent before the Bay District School Board for an expulsion hearing later this month, said Superintendent James McCalister. Under the district’s zero-tolerance policy, students who distribute drugs automatically face expulsion. Students who have or take drugs usually are expelled, McCalister said.
“A number of them had already had a previous drug offense,” McCalister said.
However, the policy allows administrators the option of suspending first-time offenders and sending them to rehabilitation, McCalister added. One of the six students received that punishment and will not be expelled, he said. Their names have not been released.
According to an incident report, Elexa-Ray Loyd handed the pill to one of the students after the student complained of having a headache. Students with medical issues are not supposed to go to other students for assistance, McCalister said. Not even administrators or a nurse are allowed to hand out medication without permission from the student’s parents, he added.