28 Students Sickened By Valentine's Candy At Fulton School

SOUTH FULTON, GA -- Twenty-eight Sandtown Middle School students were taken to local hospitals Thursday afternoon after they became sick from eating Valentine's Day candy. According to the Fulton County School District, the students began complaining of feeling nauseated and disoriented after ingesting snacks and candy brought to school.

Emergency medical personnel was called to evaluate the students. The students were taken to the Hughes Spalding and Egleston campuses of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Grady Hospital.

School officials said late Thursday afternoon that when students began reporting their symptoms, it partnered with local municipalities to immediately get them medical attention as quickly as possible.

"For the safety of all, students and staff were instructed not to eat anything given to them by another person and not to eat anything they didn’t bring from their own home," the system said. Fulton County police are still investigating, but has not yet determined what led to the students feeling ill.

According to South Fulton Mayor Bill Edwards, the children were in the same class. Edwards said Sandtown Principal Estella Cook and her staff "did an outstanding job in making sure our children were safe."

Earlier reports from several Atlanta media outlets said the school was evacuated were incorrect.

"I know that people are using the terms like active incident, but trust me everybody performed superbly," Edwards said in a social media post.

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David Allen/Patch