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In a concerning incident at a Florida school, a middle school student overdosed in class after reportedly bringing fentanyl she discovered at home.
The girl’s guardians, Joshua Sanders and Courtney Delaney, are each facing three counts of child neglect. One charge involves bodily harm while the other two do not. This comes after the young girl lost consciousness in her classroom, necessitating CPR from school staff until Narcan was administered to save her life, as detailed in a statement from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Bill Prummell emphasized the gravity of the situation, expressing gratitude for the swift actions of the school’s medical staff and deputies. “This could have ended very, very differently if not for the fast actions taken by the school nurse and other staff, as well as my deputies,” he stated. “It is inexcusable and unforgivable that this child was able to access this poison so easily, and that’s why these arrests were made. I thank God that we were able to intervene before something even worse happened.”
Joshua Sanders and Courtney Delaney Allegedly Argued Over “Missing Fentanyl”
Authorities were alerted to the emergency at L.A. Ainger Middle School in Englewood, Florida, on the morning of March 10. Upon arrival, deputies found the student unresponsive on the classroom floor with the school nurse performing CPR, as reported by officials.
Deputies administered Narcan, which elicited a positive response, according to a probable cause affidavit accessed by Oxygen. The student was subsequently taken to Englewood Hospital for further medical evaluation.
When deputies reached out to Delaney to tell her about what happened at the school, per the affidavit, she allegedly said she’d gotten into an argument with Sanders—who had been living at their home—“over some missing fentanyl” and kicked him out of the bedroom.
“Courtney stated that on numerous occasions, she located what she suspected to be narcotics in the residence,” the affidavit stated. “Courtney said that she would throw the narcotics away and not say anything to Joshua about it.”
Whenever questioned about the drugs that she’d tossed, authorities alleged in the affidavit that Delaney would pretend not to know anything about it and made “no effort” to remove Sanders from the home even though she knew the drugs were around the juvenile and two other children living in the home.
On the morning of March 9, authorities said the two got into a fight about a missing “essential oils bottle” and Delaney kicked him out of the house. That same day, the middle schooler allegedly found the bottle, marked with the letters “FENT,” in a bathroom she had shared with Sanders, according to the affidavit. Sanders began messaging her about the bottle’s whereabouts that day, and Delaney allegedly told the juvenile that if she found it she should either hide it or get rid of it.
The next day, the juvenile saw the same bottle, which she knew to contain narcotics, in the living room and put it in her backpack, per the court documents.
Before class began, she went into the bathroom with her best friend. She later told investigators, per the affidavit, that she “put some of the white powder on her finger and placed it on her tongue.”
Other students reportedly told the school staff that she’d “snorted a white powder off a toilet paper holder in the bathroom stall,” the sheriff’s office noted in the court documents.
After consuming the drugs, the girl “began to feel funny” and had to get help from her best friend to make it to the classroom, per the report, where she took out her notebook and then quickly lost consciousness.
According to authorities, “this is all she remembers prior to waking up in the ambulance.”
She later told a deputy, per the affidavit, that she’d seen Sanders doing drugs in the past which “made her curious about it.”
The school nurse also told investigators that a student ran to her office and knocked on the door at 9:19 a.m., reporting there was a student who wasn’t breathing in class. She ran to the classroom and performed CPR until emergency personnel arrived, authorities said.
Sanders allegedly admitted to investigators that he kept fentanyl in the bottle and asked them to tell the girl “he was sorry,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
Sanders is currently being held in the county jail on a $450,000 bond, according to the sheriff’s office. Delaney was released after receiving a $25,000 bond, according to jail records reviewed by Oxygen.
Oxygen reached out Delaney’s attorney Brian D. Concilio but did not receive an immediate response. There was also no response from Sanders’ attorney Gertrude Harris Kaplan.
Both are scheduled to be arraigned next month.