Students severely ill after mass poisoning at Saint Stephen’s College on Gold Coast
POLICE have launched a full-scale investigation after seven teen boys were hospitalised, four in a critical condition, after a mass drug overdose at a prestigious Gold Coast private school this afternoon.
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SEVEN teenagers have been hospitalised, four in a critical condition, after a mass drug overdose at a prestigious Gold Coast school this afternoon.
Police have launched a full-scale investigation after the Saint Stephen’s College students, aged 14 and 15, fell gravely ill and were taken to Gold Coast University Hospital from the Upper Coomera campus after swallowing a mystery drug.
Sources close to the tragedy have told the Gold Coast Bulletin the students took dangerous Russian designer drug phenibut.
Four are in a critical condition, one is serious and two are stable while several other students are ‘helping police in their lines of inquiry'.
PRIVATE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ‘DISTRAUGHT’ AFTER OVERDOSE
Saint Stephen’s College Principal Jamie Dorrington was visibly upset as he addressed the media saying the students attended the Health Centre after taking ill.
Queensland Ambulance Service operations supervisor Pat Berry said it appeared the Year 10 boys had taken drugs.
“We are leaning toward an overdose. It would appear from the initial response it is an overdose,” he said.
“I must applaud the response of the school to identify these children were deteriorating.”
ST STEPHEN’S COLLEGE MOURNS STUDENT’S SHOCK DEATH
The boys were all falling in and out of consciousness when paramedics arrived at the scene at 12.48pm on Reserve Rd.
Medics are awaiting the results of toxicology reports to determine exactly what the students took and they did not tell paramedics as they were being treated.
Medics hope to have test results by Thursday
Queensland police Acting Inspector Tony Wormald, speaking at the school, said while unclear what the substance was it was clearly “dangerous”.
“They have taken something they shouldn’t have,” he said.
The officer said he could not rule out if the drugs ingested might have been bought off the internet and it was too early to say whether charges would be laid.
“We are more concerned with where they got the drugs from and why they’ve taken it. And hopefully everybody pulls through safely.
“We’re taking it very seriously. The ingestion of an unknown substance has caused the students to fall very sick,” he said. ”
He said those who supplied the unknown drug could face “very serious charges”.
“We are making inquiries but it is early days,” he said.
“It’s a very sobering update (for parents).
“You just don’t know what it is.
“People decide to take drugs with tragic consequences, it’s very serious.”
He said it was “way too early” to speak with the students who had ingested the drugs as they are in “various states of consciousness.”
Students told the Gold Coast Bulletin Year 10 boys were “doing things they shouldn’t”.
Police are combing the school grounds for evidence.
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Students were piling out of the school grounds with one girl on the phone to a friend asking if they were all right.
Shocked parents arrived at the school to see ambulances out the front and police combing the school when they came to collect their children at 3pm.
“We have no idea what’s going on,” said the mother of a Year 9 student who declined to be named.
“We weren’t told anything.”
Worried parent Claudia Stoessel said she arrived to pick up her son and panicked when she saw the ambulances.
“I just got here and saw all the police and the ambulances and I didn’t even get told anything,” she said.
“I thought, why are they police here?
“It gave me a heart attack because my son is 14 and people were saying it was a 14 year old, it was so scary.
“I say to my kids, don’t take anything.
“Kids always think they’re safe but it’s so dangerous.
Ms Stoessel has a son in Year 9 and a daughter in Year 6 at the school
QAS are currently assessing several patients that have reportedly taken an unknown substance at an #UpperCoomera address at 12.48pm.
— Queensland Ambulance (@QldAmbulance) February 21, 2018
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