Overview

• The Adachi Ward Board of Education disclosed on October 3 that two elementary students mixed a sleep-inducing drug into a classmate's water bottle at a public school in Tokyo.
• The act occurred on September 26 during sports-day practice, when the students used a school key to access a locked classroom, took the bottle, and mixed the substance in a toilet.
• The drug was identified as the sleep aid Melatobel, with about three packets used, and authorities said one child brought it from home.
• Another student witnessed the tampering, staff were alerted, the contents were discarded before anyone drank, and police were consulted with no injuries reported.
• As newly detailed by officials, a master key had been noticed missing on July 7, the vice principal did not inform the principal until after the incident, and the board cited poor key management and information-sharing.