Police: Girls sent to hospital

Four students at TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa students had to be sent to hospital Friday after taking Ecstasy and inhaling from an aerosol can, police said.

The students, all in the eighth grade, were girls between 12 and 14 years old, said Lt. Bob Ciszek.

School district officials said the girls took the pills and used the inhalant either on the school bus ride to campus or on campus early that morning.

About 9:30 a.m., one of the girls went to the school nurse and said she felt ill, said district spokeswoman Laura Boss. The girl was going in and out of consciousness, and the nurse called the paramedics, Boss said.

School officials rounded up the three other girls involved and took them to the Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach as a precautionary measure, Boss said.

A vice principal from the school was at the hospital with the students, she said.

One of the girls told police that she gave the other girls Ecstasy, and then all four inhaled from a Dust-Off can, an aerosol cleaner used to clean computers and TV screens, Ciszek said. One of the girls brought the inhalant from off-campus, Boss said.

Police and school officials are continuing to investigate, and no disciplinary actions have been determined.