Elementary school kids suspended over Kool-Aid mixed with sugar

"West Palm Beach, USA - August 31, 2012: Studio shot of a packet of Tropical Punch Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid is a powder that is mixed with water and sugar to make a fruit flavored drink. Kool-Aid is made by Kraft Foods." (NoDerog)

Nine elementary school kids in South Carolina have been suspended for violating a school drug policy because they were caught with so-called "happy crack," a mixture of Kool-Aid and sugar that is not actually illicit but, simply by resembling an illicit substance, violates school policy.

WYFF4 reports that their punishment was reduced from expulsion to suspension, though privacy laws prevent the school from disclosing whether students, who are around age 10, were distributing or simply eating the powder.

"The way [the school] called me, I thought my son died," one mother tells ABC News.

"She said there's this epidemic going on at school with happy crack. I Googled it. I'm like Kool-Aid and sugar, are you serious? I was appalled. I was floored. I really didn't think it would go to this extreme."

But the policy, which parents say they were unaware of, clearly states that "no student will market or distribute any substance ... similar in color, shape, size, or markings of a controlled substance."

Parents say kids can buy pixie sticks that are essentially the same powder.

Last year a Cleveland 8th-grader was suspended for five days for a similar "crack candy" offense. (Sugar, by the way, may make us chronically sick.)

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This article originally appeared on Newser: Elementary School Kids Suspended Over Kool-Aid