Coatesville Area School District admits poor handling of heroin incident

COATESVILLE, Pa (WPVI) -- Coatesville Area School District officials say they found a series of failures in their response to an incident where a 7-year-old student brought heroin to school.

The incident happened Friday, May 2, 2014 at Caln Elementary School.

The young student came to school with nine bags of heroin in his pocket.

The child's grandmother 56-year-old Pauline Bilinksy-Munion is accused of leaving the drugs out for her grandson to find.

The district attorney and police chief were highly critical of the way the district handled its response to the discovery.

The school solicitor led an investigation into the events of that day.

"Our investigation revealed that there were multiple failures in several respects, which contributed to the accurate perception that the incident at Caln should have been handled better," said Deborah Thompson, Coatesville Area School Board.

First, school personnel never called 911 but notified school police first.

"School police arrived approximately 20 minutes later and within 15- 20 minute, police made a personal report to the Caln Township Police Department," said James Ellison, district solicitor.

The board contends no local police ever responded to the school until Monday afternoon, to conduct a search of the building.

District officials found out about the incident nine hours later when a parent called to report her son had brought a baggie of heroin home from school.

Only then were all parents notified. And it wasn't until Monday afternoon, that local law enforcement arrived to search the school building.

The district is now reviewing and changing its policy on responding to such incidents with school personnel facing possible disciplinary action.

"Their actions did not meet the expected standards of safety for our children and their families and will be addressed accordingly," said Thomas.

The Chester County district attorney said that school police never asked for any assistance when they filed that report so police did not respond.

Action News has also learned that Bilinski-Munion did make bail and her 7-year-old grandchild is back living with her in the same home.