TOOELE, Utah — Students at Deseret Peak High School in Tooele faced a chaotic scene on Tuesday when they were placed under secure hold protocols after cocaine was found inside one of the girls' bathrooms at the school.
“Intercoms come on and go, ‘Hey, we’re in lockdown. Nobody leave their class.’ And everyone in my class just went silent and goes, ‘What’s happening?’” junior Kayoshi Yei described.
After the first alert, rumors spread like wildfire across the school and beyond.
“My daughter called me, she was really upset," said parent Jennifer Tippetts. “I was told at first that there was possible fentanyl in the girls' restroom.”
The Tooele Police Department said students found the drugs in the bathroom and alerted a staff member, who involved police. The cocaine was found on top of a toilet paper dispenser and was about the size of a nickel.
Twenty students were potentially exposed to the drugs and have been evaluated by medical personnel. Two staff members and one student showed symptoms in reaction to the cocaine and were treated at the scene, with one staff member being transported to the hospital for treatment.
“It sounds awful, but I’m glad it wasn’t anything worse, like fent, because that is way more severe than this,” said Yei.
Yei felt the school handled the secure hold effectively.
“Because it was a few minutes before the bell rang when they did it, and that stopped the contamination from spreading a lot more," she said.
Students and parents alike still want to see action taken to find out how the discovery could have happened in the first place.
“I am hoping they will be able to look at cameras and find out who it was.” said Tippetts.
“I hope the person gets expelled, because it’s not okay to bring in a substance that can hurt or endanger so many people,” Yei added.
Students and staff were released from the school at 11:30 a.m. as part of a planned day.
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