Moorhead student, 13, suspected of bringing 1,500 fentanyl pills to school

MOORHEAD Minn A Moorhead middle school learner arrested Thursday allegedly brought pills that could contain fentanyl to Horizon Middle School During a press conference Friday the Moorhead Police Department shared further information about the pupil s arrest on suspicion of possessing drugs on school property Police Chief Chris Helmick explained a -year-old male candidate was arrested Thursday for first-degree possession of a controlled substance He is being held at the juvenile detention center I think we can all agree that this type of criminal activity in our schools is unacceptable and there are various unanswered questions as to how this could happen Helmick explained The novice s identity and specific details of the situation will not be published due to privacy laws the Moorhead Police Department commented Helmick reported the learner was arrested after another learner reported Horizon Middle School staff that the boy had a large quantity of blue pills School staff worked with the school source officer to locate and detain the novice suspected of possessing the pills Through field testing detectives from the Moorhead police narcotics unit determined the pills could contain fentanyl Further lab testing will be required to confirm if the pills contain fentanyl Helmick revealed Pills of this type are valued at around a pill he declared making the entire bag worth more than Pills of the sort are dangerous for adults and even more so for children he reported You put that in a child who is much smaller and you put that same quantity in them you re likely to kill them Helmick commented Moorhead Area Masses Schools Superintendent Brandon Lunak disclosed the scholar who notified school staff of the pills did the right thing Because of their courageous actions of finding somebody and telling somebody something that they knew something wasn t right we were able to take care of this situation effectively and promptly Lunak mentioned In response to Thursday s arrest the Moorhead Police Department will begin conducting regular K- searches in Horizon Middle School and Moorhead High School Helmick disclosed The department has two K- search dogs and plans to add a third in The primary goal of these checks is to deter other incidents like this from occurring in the future Helmick reported However for anyone who thinks they will be able to bring illegal narcotics into the schools please know this you will be caught And to anyone who thinks they can bring guns or other weapons into schools you will be caught as well Helmick became choked up as he continued Dr Lunak and I are both in agreement that we ve had enough of this our parents and our students have had enough of this and it s going to stop Helmick noted Earlier this year Moorhead Area Citizens Schools had two gun-related incidents at the Moorhead High School Career Academy Lunak encouraged parents to talk with their children about the drug arrest and earlier gun arrests Talk to your son or daughter about these events and talk to them about the severity of them because at the end of the day they are also a line of defense for us Lunak noted We need our society and all the way down to our parents to also talk to our kids on the importance of making good sound choices Related Articles Eagan native and former Survivor contestant on campus during Brown University shooting Richfield man arrested after reports he put a dead body in his truck Duluth hunter charged with illegally shooting moose noted he mistook it for a deer St Paul police seek man in suspected domestic violence homicide St Paul man gets years in prison for rapes years apart