(KTLA) — An employee at a special needs school in California was arrested Tuesday after police received a tip accusing her of giving fentanyl to students.
Riverside police officers responded around 4:30 p.m. to a report of a student who was out of control at the Bright Futures Academy in Riverside. While at the school, which serves special needs students from kindergarten to 12th grade, staff told officers about an employee who may have been giving fentanyl to students.
Police learned that a student at the school had actually overdosed on the opioid at their home just a week earlier.
A school investigation identified 46-year-old Melissa Harloam-Garrison as the person suspected of giving the student and additional kids fentanyl.
Harloam-Garrison is a bus driver and campus security guard who lives on campus in a cottage with her husband, the school said.
Officers searched the on-campus home and found more than a hundred suspected fentanyl pills, two handguns and various types of ammunition.
Harloam-Garrison was arrested and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on charges of child endangerment and various illegal drug and firearms violations. She is being held on $50,000 bail.
Her husband, 58-year-old David Garrison, was also arrested and booked on charges of possession of a firearm on campus and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. His bail was set at $25,000.
The investigation is still ongoing.