A Carrollton High School Claims Employee Gave Student Prescription Drugs

Editor's note, 3/2/2023, 1:50 p.m.: This story has been updated to include the confirmation that the email was sent by the school and that the employee in question was a teacher.

The subject line got straight to the point: "Employee Arrest - Drugs." A message sent to parents on Wednesday afternoon by Adam Grinage, principal of Carrollton's R.L. Turner High School, informed the public of a drug-related incident at the school.

Grinage wrote that an employee at the high school "provided prescription medication to a student without authorization." He said that when Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD learned of the incident, the district promptly launched an investigation and the person was put on paid administrative leave. Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Chief Communications Officer Dawn Parnell confirmed the email was sent by the school and that the employee in question was a teacher.

"The employee has since resigned effective immediately," he said in the message, which was obtained by the Observer from a parent of children attending school in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. "Law enforcement was notified immediately of the incident and is now conducting their own investigation."

Grinage praised Carrollton police, as well as the school's administrative team and staff, for their speedy response. He also expressed gratitude to district leaders for their support.

"I know this will be very upsetting news to our community and I am so sorry about that. I also know that there will be rumors and other misinformation that will soon be spread on social media," he continued, adding that he'd shared all the details that he legally could and that he encourages parents to reach out to him if they want to discuss further.

The news comes as cities across Texas have been rocked by a string of accidental fentanyl overdoses and as law enforcement is ramping up fentanyl-related arrests.

Authorities apprehended a 22-year-old man in February who, they said, supplied the fentanyl that had been linked to the deaths of three Carrollton teenagers and to several other teen overdoses. Two additional suspects, also in their 20s, were arrested earlier that month. They'd operated out of a Carrollton home near R.L. Turner High School and were federally charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.

In that case, the victims ranged in age from 13 to 17.

Scant details are available about the incident involving an employee at R.L. Turner High School, including information regarding the type of prescription medication.

Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD has previously come under fire from critics who allege that their concerns about fentanyl were taken too lightly. On Monday, a district meeting grew tense after a community activist blasted the way that CFBISD handled the series of hospitalizations and overdoses related to fentanyl-laced pills, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Carmin Williams, the mother of a 12-year-old student in the district who became hooked on fentanyl, also claimed to have warned administrators there of her concerns, NBC-DFW reported last month. Her daughter, Khloe, eventually admitted to Williams that another student in the district had given her the pills, which were laced with fentanyl.

“She told me that she would only do two a day, but the other kids were doing more," Williams said, according to that outlet. "She would show me all types of pictures. Like, these kids had sandwich bags full of pills, and they were just passing them out."