Mom, beau charged in school heroin scare

One day after a first-grader brought 11 packets of heroin to her West Philadelphia school, police arrested her mother and the woman's live-in boyfriend on endangerment and drug charges.

Marie Hunter, 32, and Christopher Troy-Jenkins White, 28, both of Viola Street near 42nd, are being held for narcotics possession, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment.

Hunter's 6-year-old daughter prompted a police response and an emergency field trip to the hospital for her entire class at Barry Elementary School when a teacher discovered her handling 10 packets of white powder around lunchtime yesterday. Police and paramedics hurried to the school on Race Street near 59th. Police confiscated the drugs, while paramedics tended to the girl, who complained of stomach pains after apparently tearing open a packet with her teeth, police said. Other paramedics hopped aboard a school bus with 19 of the girl's classmates and took them to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for evaluation. Hunter's daughter also was rushed to CHOP, where she was treated and released.

The girl now is in the custody of the city's Department of Human Services.

Southwest Detectives recovered an additional packet of alleged heroin from the girl's pants pocket at CHOP.  Narcotics Field Unit officers searched the family's home and confiscated 18 packets of marijuana from a second-floor bedroom.