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Cops: 7-Year-Old Brings Heroin Into Chester County School; Grandmother Arrested

By Steve Beck and Syma Chowdhry

THORNDALE, Pa. (CBS) --Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan is livid after learning a first grader brought heroin to Caln Elementary School on Friday.

"We're lucky we don't have a dead seven-year-old on our hands from ingesting heroin," Hogan says.

What's worse?

He found out through media reports not school officials.

"The school district didn't call 911. Didn't call the DA's office. Did not freeze all the kids in place. Did not call emergency personal to see if the kids were okay."

Officials say a teacher overhead the seven-year-old boy telling another student he had heroin with him.

When the teacher confronted him, he first said he found the bag of heroin on school property but later confessed he brought it from home and was passing it out.

At least one child took it home with them.

"A mother was walking with her child in the mall and found the child with a baggie of heroin that they got from the child that brought it in the school."

Police have arrested the first grader's grandmother, Pauline Bilinski-Munion.

Authorities say she is a known drug user and left bags of heroin out when she was watching her grand kids.

D.A. Hogan says, "She was actually babysitting not only her seven-year-old grandson, but a one-year-old."

Parents found out about the incident after reverse emergency calls went out Friday night.

But they say it was extremely vague, leaving them outraged.

Charles Ward says, "It's a shame. It should have been dealt with Friday as soon as someone found it at recess versus 9pm at night and hear Monday the person is getting arrested. To me it is outrageous."

The School District released the following statement:

"Caln Elementary School administrators contacted the Coatesville Area School District Police Department within minutes of discovering an unknown substance within the possession of one of its students. The Coatesville Area School District Police Department immediately contacted Caln Township, Coatesville city and South Coatesville Police Departments."

Bilinksi-Munion is being held at the Chester County Prison after failing to post her $25,000 cash bail.

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