Hello Kitty Heroin: Another Pittsburgh Public School Student Brings More Than Crayons to School

In what seems like a flashback to last month, another Pittsburgh Public School has had to deal with heroin being brought to school in the backpack of a child. Today Pittsburgh School Police arrived at Roosevelt PreK-5 after being called about alleged stamp sized bags being found in possession of a child. The last time this happened it was a third grade student at Turner Elementary School, today it was a kindergartener at Roosevelt. While this may seem shocking and even unbelievable it could have been worse, much worse. The principal, listed as Mr. Vincent Lewandowski at the PPS / K-12 website, came upon the heroin parcels after a student was cut with a razor. Upon searching his belongings he found eighteen 'stamps' of heroin.

The school, Roosevelt PreK-5, is located in the Carrick area of the city; a neighborhood that is like so many others in Pittsburgh '" the good side and the bad side. The incident, reported last month, took place at Turner Elementary located in the Wilkinsburg section of the city. The true danger with today's incident is that the boy, seven years of age, had given some of the bags to friends during the bus ride to school. Police and school officials are not sure of the exact number of stamps that were in the bag but there are updates saying that at lease one parent has called Pittsburgh Police to turn over one of the white parcels she found in her child's backpack after receiving a call from a concerned relative who saw the story on Channel 11 News.

Will this be the last time this happens? Probably not. With the increasing number of drug trafficking arrests in the area, dealers and users are resorting to hiding their product in places where police and rival dealers would never think to look. Across the United States heroin parcels have been found in diaper bags, stuffed animals, in the bottom of cereal boxes, sealed in plastic and placed in baby bottles and inside baby carriers and car seats. This is a true wake up call for local and state agencies to impose extra jail time for the involvement of minors in trafficking of controlled substances.