Several students sickened after eating candy at middle school

ATLANTA, Georgia (KTRK) -- Officials say several middle school students fell ill after eating candy at school on Friday.

"It looked like some fruit crushed up, crushed up Fruity Pebbles and jolly ranchers," 6th-grader Latangia Fears told WSB-TV.

Butt's County Sheriff's Office showed pictures of the suspected candy, which was crushed up in small bags.

Deputies say the candy was not laced with any kind of THC or narcotics, but was just bad when someone picked it up from the food bank.

"It looked like they just started coughing and they became really unconscious and choking on that stuff," Fears said.

Deputies say there's no way the student who passed out the candy could have known it was bad. They said she did nothing wrong.

The Butt's County Sheriff's Office released the following statement:

"We are working diligently alongside our public safety partners to collect the substance and provide treatment to students who were affected."

The sheriff said there was no wrongdoing by any of the children.