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Police Investigating Parents Of 7-Year-Old Found With Heroin

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Police say they are looking at the parents of a 7-year-old boy who brought nearly 20 stamp bags of heroin to school and gave some to his classmates.

Investigators believe the parents were the source of the drugs, but it will take time to substantiate the case.

Sources say police searched the home of the 7-year-old boy shortly after the heroin was found, but so far, they didn't find any other trace of the heroin.

Meantime, police and school administrators say their focus is on the students at Quentin Roosevelt Elementary School in Carrick where the drugs were found.

"Developmentally, a 5 and 6-year-old – you try to keep things as simple as possible, answer their questions as honestly as possible and we began our day," Vincent Lewandowski, principal of the elementary school, said.

Lewandowski doesn't think most of the 180 pre-K through kindergarten students at the school fully understand that a classmate brought the highly-addictive street drug heroin into the school. But they do know now that the packets being passed out this week as magic tickets are anything but magical.

"We went over some rules again this morning about getting little packets or little gifts and that sometimes not everything that's inside of them are gifts and they can be very dangerous," Lewandowski said.

Police don't believe the 7-year-old who brought the packets to school in a backpack had any idea there were drugs inside.

But the police investigation is now two-fold – where did he get the drugs and who did he give the "magic tickets" to?

"We have our sex assault family crisis team that will initiate an investigation too because we have to do some interviews – some follow up interviews of the children at the school who may have come in contact with the young man, may have been given some of the little packets," Pittsburgh Police Assistant Chief Maurita Bryant said.

The student involved will most likely face disciplinary because drugs knowingly or not on school property violates the student code.

Police don't believe any of the students actually opened the packets, but a teacher's aide did, signaling to authorities that both students and staff need better education about street drugs.

Police say they're also working with Children Youth and Families in this case because if in fact there was heroin in the 7-year-old lived, there could be other safety concerns.

Stay with KDKA for more on this developing story.

RELATED LINKS:
Pittsburgh Police
Pittsburgh Roosevelt
7-Year-Old Gave Heroin To Classmates
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