ROME — Rome City School District Board of Education member Kelly Carinci said she wrote a note to herself to have a talk with her own elementary school-aged child after Monday’s regular board meeting.

She, along with her fellow board members, district Superintendent Peter Blake and their audience had just heard impassioned public commentary from district resident and mom Joanne Grant about a Jan. 18 incident at Denti Elementary School.

Grant described how word was getting around that a young child at the school had brought in edible marijuana gummies and given them out to friends. Some of those children had even ended up at the nurse’s office after ingesting the candy-looking “treats,” she said.

Kids are taught about “stranger danger,” Grant said, but now they can’t even take what looks like “candy” from their own friends. All parents should warn their own children about these dangers, she said.

“There should be a discussion with all of our kids,” Grant said. “These look like Gummi Bears and first and second graders don’t know the difference.”

When board member Jeff DeMatteis asked about the discipline for an incident like this, Blake said traditionally a student would be suspended. Blake would not comment on this specific child nor any discipline in this specific incident, however, to protect the child’s privacy.

To date, parents had not been officially told by administrators about the incident, Grant added. She said in general she is “absolutely appalled and disappointed” with the lack of communication coming from the school and also pointed to four teachers leaving recently as a “huge red flag” there.

“I am begging you to get into the school and see what is going on,” she implored the board.

Marijuana edibles are now legal in New York, but the first legal stores are only now beginning to pop up, said Christine Stork, clinical director of the Upstate New York Poison Center in Syracuse, recently. As neighboring states and New York have started legalizing marijuana, Stork said her center — like those in similar states — has seen an uptick in accidental poisonings from marijuana edibles, which often look like regular tasty treats or candies.

If a parent suspects a poisoining from a marijuana edible, they are encouraged to call the Upstate New York Poison Center as quickly as possible, the clinical director added, at 1-800-222-1222.

Student report

School board student liaison Danielle D’Aiuto, a senior at Rome Free Academy, reported a much happier environment at school sporting events now that mandatory wristband-wearing restrictions have been eased.

In her report at the previous meeting, D’Aiuto told the board and their audience how attendance at the school’s ice hockey and basketball games was hurt by the need for students to wear wristbands proving they had no referrals that would ban them from attending. Her own report that evening was followed by several district parents making their own comments on the matter to the board.

D’Aiuto suggested students’ names could be easily checked with their own district ID cards to show who could attend. That system seems to be working much better and both students and families are happier now, D’Aiuto said.

Safety award

The district recently received the Utica National School Safety Excellence Award at the Titanium with Honors level, the company’s highest safety award.

Upcoming events

The A Cappella Collegiate Invitational is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4, at Rome Free Academy, 95 Dart Cir.

The ninth annual Face Off Against Colon Cancer benefit ice hockey game will be played in memory of late Coach Peter Mastracco at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, at John F. Kennedy Arena, 500 W. Embargo St.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Rome City Schools Board of Education will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, at Mohawk Valley Community College, 1101 Floyd Ave. The change in venue is so the board and their audience can inspect the drone soccer course there.