Two stu­dents from a school in Bar­rack­pore had to re­ceive med­ical at­ten­tion yes­ter­day, af­ter in­gest­ing a sub­stance con­tained in tablets.

There were re­ports on so­cial me­dia that the chil­dren had tak­en ec­sta­sy, an il­le­gal stim­u­lant and hal­lu­cino­gen drug. How­ev­er, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said the re­port sub­mit­ted to the min­istry men­tioned the stu­dents re­ceived the tablet from an­oth­er stu­dent, but it was un­cer­tain what sub­stance they ac­tu­al­ly con­sumed.

Yes­ter­day, the min­is­ter said she was con­cerned about the in­ci­dent, as she im­plored stu­dents to be cau­tious about what they ac­cept or put in­to their bod­ies.

Gads­by-Dol­ly said speak­ing not just as a min­is­ter but as a par­ent, “I ask our stu­dents to be care­ful about tak­ing sub­stances that they know noth­ing about. Please, even if a ‘friend’ of­fers this to you, be very cau­tious. One nev­er knows if even a com­mon med­ica­tion or tablet may cause an al­ler­gic re­ac­tion in an­oth­er stu­dent. So please, stu­dents, be care­ful about what you of­fer, and don’t take any­thing you’re not sure about.”

The stu­dents were re­ceiv­ing med­ical care at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. —Sascha Wil­son