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Stepfather arrested after son takes heroin to school

A kindergarten student showed classmates packets of heroin from his stepfather's jacket that he brought to school.

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City of Bridgeport/AP
This booking photo released Tuesday, April 10, by the City of Bridgeport, Conn., shows Santos Roman, 35, arrested Monday after arriving at the school where his 5-year-old stepson brought 50 packets of heroin in Roman's jacket for show and tell.
  • By Associated Press

| Bridgeport, Conn.

A 5-year-old boy found dozens of bags of heroin inside a jacket he had taken to school and showed them to his kindergarten classmates, the school superintendent said Tuesday.

Bridgeport Superintendent Paul Vallas said he believes the boy took his stepfather's jacket to school on Monday without knowing the drugs were inside it.

"Children bring to school what they find at home," he said.

Police have told the Connecticut Post the boy took 50 packets of heroin out when it came time for a show-and-tell presentation, but Vallas said the boy only waved the heroin around at his cubicle. Police did not respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.

The boy's stepfather, 35-year-old Santos Roman, went to the school and recovered the jacket, but police had already seized the drugs, officials said. He was arrested when he returned to the school after apparently discovering the heroin was missing, Vallas said.

Roman was arrested on risk of injury to a minor and drug charges. He appeared Tuesday in Bridgeport Superior Court and was ordered held on $100,000 bail. He wasn't available to comment from jail, and there was no phone number listed for his home address.

The Department of Children and Families placed the boy in the custody of his grandmother, even though his mother went to the school to take him home, Vallas said.

Vallas praised the reactions of the teacher who initially noticed the drugs, worth about $500 on the street, and of others involved in the response.

"I think everybody operated like clockwork," he said.

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