PEARLAND, Tex. (CNN/KPRC) -- Four students in Texas are rushed to hospital after police say they intentionally drank cough syrup.
Parent Edward Jasmine "That's kinda alarming to hear something like that."
Parents and students at Pearland's Dawson High School slowly learned the news that four students taken by paramedics after they became intoxicated after drinking a powerful cough syrup. Jasmine says, "I wonder, what's the rationale behind that? I guess maybe they wanted to go home or something. Kids does things that I don't understand."
Police say the boys, two 14-year-olds and two others, 15, ingested the medicine in one of the school's restrooms. One of the boys had brought four bottles of Delsym cough syrup. Each boy drank a full bottle each.
After returning to class, a teacher noticed one of the students acting strangely and appearing to be in some kind of distress. The teacher sent him to the nurse who discovered he had an elevated blood pressure and an elevated heart rate. He admitted to drinking the cough syrup and eventually told on the others. Lt. Onesimo Lopez says, "In the end, all four were transported to Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital for evaluation."
Delsym is a strong medicine with a 12-hour time release that is meant to be taken in teaspoonfuls. It's powerful stuff. It's so strong it's often placed behind the counter, but at a nearby drugstore it was found on the shelf. Lopez says, "If they take too much of it trying to keep chasing that high, they could very well end up overdosing and may actually even die from it."
Authorities also say the students may face public intoxication charges.