Ontario student faces adulterated food charge for pot cookies

ONTARIO - An 18-year-old Ontario High School student who told police and school administration she sold marijuana cookies at school now faces a misdemeanor charge in adult court.

Ashley K. Mays, 18, is charged with adulterated food, a first-degree misdemeanor relating to putting harmful substances in food. She admitted to making cookies, sprinkling them with marijuana and bringing them to school, where she sold them to fellow students, according to the Ontario police report. Mays is set to be arraigned April 6 in Ontario Mayor's Court.

Police said Mays admitted she brought marijuana cookies to school Thursday, March 16 and Thursday, March 23. She said she sold two bags of the cookies for $5 each to two other students.

Mays and a juvenile student who purchased one of the bags named four other juvenile students who they said consumed cookies. None of the students showed signs of impairment when police performed a field sobriety check.

Based on student statements, police found two Ziploc bags that supposedly had contained the cookies. The bags, which were mostly empty but had some cookie crumbs inside, were found in trash cans in the band room and in the men's restroom near the cafeteria. Both bags were seized by police, along with two five-dollar bills.

The case was forwarded to the law director, who approved the adulterated food charge for Mays.

Four students were suspended from the school in relation to the incident, and three face possible expulsion.

Superintendent Lisa Carmichael said expulsion hearings have not yet occurred and that she will issue a statement after hearings are conducted.

cmcnaull@gannett.com

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Twitter: @courtneymcnaull