Two seventh graders at Sheppard Middle School in San Jose were hospitalized after an apparent drug overdose at a Halloween party held Thursday evening. Both students have since been released from the hospital and are recovering at home, according to the district superintendent, who said officials are still working to determine what happened.
The incident occurred Thursday evening, according to multiple sources who spoke with NBC Bay Area. One source familiar with the case told the station it was an over-the-counter drug the students took, though the school district has not disclosed what substance the teenagers are suspected of taking. The district confirmed it has launched an investigation into the overdose.
In an email to the outlet, the superintendent said the district is taking the matter seriously and has limited details it can share while the investigation continues. The same statement noted that the district is working to determine any necessary follow-up actions. Both students are out of the hospital and recovering at home, the superintendent said.
A Doctor's Warning on Everyday Medicine Cabinet Risks
The case has drawn attention to the dangers of common household medications when misused by teenagers. Harsha Ramchandani, a chief medical officer at Bay Area Community Health, told the station that over-the-counter drugs — including Benadryl, cough medicine and Tylenol — can cause serious harm if not taken cautiously. She said an overdose occurs when the body is not able to handle the drugs a person ingests.
“This absolutely concerning. We are talking about teens,” Ramchandani said, according to the station's report. She added that these medications can trigger hallucinations, dangerous heart rhythms, seizures, coma or death when misused. Ramchandani also cited a reported 31% increase in child exposure to Benadryl attributed to the CDC, explaining that an exposure is recorded when a parent or school official calls the National Poison Control hotline to report that a child came into contact with the drug.
A Broader Pattern in Teen Medication Misuse
The Sheppard incident lands amid a documented rise in teen misuse of over-the-counter antihistamines nationally. Poison centers received 6,179 calls involving diphenhydramine among teens ages 13 to 19 in the first five months of 2026, more than double the number reported during the same period in 2025, according to ABC News. The same report found that calls involving diphenhydramine among teens rose from 10,068 in 2024 to 13,284 in 2025, while the share of those cases linked to intentional abuse climbed to 13.2% in 2026, up from 7.3% in 2020.
Separate data from Poison Control shows that 21% of poison exposures among teens in 2024 had a moderate, major or fatal effect, compared with just 1.5% among children younger than 6. That same year, only 35.6% of teen poison exposures reported to U.S. poison centers were classified as unintentional, and the nation's 55 poison centers fielded nearly 2.1 million human poison exposure calls overall.
Comparing Past School Overdose Scares
School overdose incidents involving groups of students have surfaced elsewhere in California before, though the available evidence does not establish that those cases involved the same substance or circumstances as the Sheppard incident. In December 2022, ten students ages 12 to 15 were found in mild-to-moderate distress at Van Nuys Middle School in Los Angeles, according to People. Seven of those students were transported to local hospitals while three were treated and released at the scene.
A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson said at the time that the overdoses possibly involved edible cannabis products, though the department's official release stated only that the incident was not fentanyl related. The Los Angeles Unified School District said the substance involved remained under investigation and confirmed that Narcan was not administered to any of the students based on a preliminary evaluation, the outlet reported.
Back in San Jose, Sheppard Middle School's investigation remains ongoing, and the district has not said what follow-up actions it may take. For now, the two seventh graders are recovering at home while officials work to piece together what led to Thursday's hospitalizations.
