‘Grey’s Anatomy’ actors among parents suing Westport schools, bus company after children hospitalized from marijuana-laced candy left on bus
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages against the Westport Board of Education, the superintendent, and the bus company.
WESTPORT, Conn. — Two Hollywood actors who call Connecticut home and a third parent claim in a lawsuit that Westport school officials are downplaying an incident last year in which their child and a friend were hospitalized after eating cannabis-laced candy they found on the school bus.
“Grey’s Anatomy” stars Scott Foley and Marika Foley, along with another parent, filed the lawsuit in state Superior Court in Stamford earlier this month against the Westport Board of Education, Board Chairman Lee Goldstein, Superintendent Thomas Scarice, bus company DATTCO, Inc., DATTCO President Donald Devivo, and the bus driver on duty during the incident, Berne Alphonse.
According to the complaint, on Dec. 12, 2022, the Foley’s son and a friend, who was staying at the Foley’s while her parents were out of the country, were riding the school bus home from their elementary school when they ate from found a bag of candy left by another student.
The candy turned out to be laced with THC.
The lawsuit states that a police investigation found that the bag was left on the bus by a 15-year-old high school student who had previously ridden on the bus.
When the two children got home from school, they reportedly told the Foleys’ nanny that they had eaten some chocolate found on the bus, the lawsuit states. About an hour later, the two children began to complain of dizziness, stomach problems, and confusion.
The two parents were called, and the nanny said she was worried that they had “eaten something that they should not have eaten,” the lawsuit says.
The Foleys arrived at the house and Scott Foley saw his son’s friend “as having lost all of the color from her face, her eyes as sunken with dark circles under them, and the whites of her eyes as bloodshot,” the lawsuit states. Their son was “looking sickly, lethargic” and was having trouble walking in a straight line.
The children were quickly taken to the Westport Urgent Care before being taken via ambulance to Norwalk Hospital where doctors determined the children had ingested cannabis.
According to the lawsuit, the two children remained at the hospital for several hours and the Foleys’ son remained intoxicated for more than 30 hours.
In the lawsuit, the parents claim school officials were not “fully transparent” about the incident, which they said allowed rumors to circulate resulting in their children being bullied and called “drug addicts.”
They said they were disappointed by the school district’s response and allege having numerous calls with Scarice after the incident, where they asked him to issue a statement explaining what happened.
According to the lawsuit, the superintendent said he could not disclose that the students ingested marijuana due to privacy concerns. The parents also claim the school district refused to show them video footage of their children eating the laced candy until the Westport Police Department got a search warrant for the footage on Feb. 3, 2023.
It seems that Scarice did address the incident at a Dec. 19 board of education meeting. In that meeting, he announced some students had become ill after eating candy on a school bus. He said there was an investigation underway, and police were contacted.
In the lawsuit, the parents also claim DATTCO, Inc. did not adhere to its policy to provide a “safe and orderly environment” for students. They said the company and the bus driver also violated its contract with the town, which requires drivers to inspect buses before picking up students at each school.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages against the Westport Board of Education, its chair Lee Goldstein, Scarice, and the DATTCO bus company.
FOX61 reached out to the school, the bus company, and the lawyer representing the parents for comment.