KETTLEMAN CITY - At least five children were treated at a hospital after eating medicine one student thought was candy.

The incident occurred sometime Wednesday morning at Kettleman City Elementary School, Kings County Sheriff's Cmdr. Rene Hanavan said.

"The fire department was dispatched at 11:10 a.m. and we found out about it at about 11:30 a.m.," Hanavan said.

On his way to school, a 10-year-old student found a package of red tablets near a trash can.

"He believed them to be candy, but, in actuality, they were a non-prescription cold medicine," Hanavan said.

The student took them to school, where he shared the pills with some other school children, approximately nine students in total.

About five of the nine became ill, mostly complaining of nausea, Hanavan said, and were taken to Coalinga Regional Medical Center, where they were treated and released.

"All of the children were OK" Wednesday, Hanavan said. "Most were kept for a short time for observation.

"None of the illnesses or complaints were life threatening."

Sheriff Allan McClain said the incident will not result in an arrest.

"You have a 10-year-old child who had no criminal intent, so there is no crime," McClain said. "If he would have taken them to school, knowing they were medicine, and passed them out to other kids hoping to make them sick, then it would have been a criminal case."

Hanavan said that this incident occurred because of sheer carelessness on behalf of the owner of the medicine.

"If they would have disposed of their medication appropriately, this would have never happened," Hanavan said.

Some of the proper ways to dispose of medication, Hanavan said, is to flush it down the toilet or wrap medication up and dispose of it inside, not outside, a garbage can.

(The reporter may be reached at kmachado@pulitzer.net)

(Oct. 7, 2004)