I-Team Exclusive: When Heroin Arrived At School, Veteran Officer Credited With Making The Difference
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia Police are crediting a veteran officer with helping protect children from exposure to a deadly drug, when packets of heroin were brought into the school where she is assigned as part of the department's Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Unit.
In an exclusive interview with CBS 3's Walt Hunter, Officer Wendy McGrody, who has worked around the city for DARE in schools for 19 years, told how a young student, who she has just instructed about the dangers of drugs, walked up to her in the crowded cafeteria of the Cramp School, handing her a heroin packet he had just found, explaining, "it was the 'right thing to do', those were his exact words."
McGrody says if the student hadn't brought the heroin to her attention, many other students, playing and lunching together, might have been sickened by the deadly drug.
The veteran officer says it was "extremely gratifying" that the student she taught not only recognized the dangerous substance, but also trusted her enough to bring it to her.
Police now say a first grader told them he brought 15 packets of heroin from his home after finding them under a kitchen table.
Investigators say after searching the house they arrested a family friend, Latoria Faulk, for allegedly having 112 packets of heroin in a car parked outside.
Thursday afternoon, police also arrested the first grader's mother on several charges including endangering the welfare of a child.
