A school health technician in Florida was charged on December 1st with stealing prescription medication from several students and, in some instances, replacing their medications with aspirin or Aleve.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office has charged 27-year-old Makayla Crandall of Niceville with three counts of grand theft of a controlled substance, five counts of child neglect, and one count of failure to maintain narcotics records.
Crandall was hired at Destin Middle School in July 2022.
In late September, a child who visits Crandall daily for medication administration started noticing a difference in the color and imprint of her pills and mentioned it to her mother.
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Her mother, in turn, says she had observed distinct differences in her child’s behavior.
After it was reported, the OCSO School Resource Officer and school employees forced entry into the cabinet and conducted an audit on October 4th.
The audit revealed at least 110 missing amphetamine/dexmethylphenidate pills from at least five students. One bottle contained an ALEVE pill, and another had seven pills, later identified as aspirin.
The investigation revealed that around the same September/October timeframe, two other parents say they had become concerned after noticing a resurfacing of behavioral issues with their children. During the audit, one of those students’ medication bottles contained aspirin, which the parent says the student is not to be administered.
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The mother of a third victim says she dropped off a bottle of Adderall for her daughter on September 29th but had to take her to the emergency room on October 4th due to her erratic, unusual behavior.
Investigators say Crandall had sole possession of the key to the medicine cabinet. She claimed to have a valid prescription for Adderall, but no prescription could be found in law enforcement databases.
Crandall also could not explain how student medications were missing or had been switched out.
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