Police arrested a Montevallo Middle School eighth-grader May 11 after school officials discovered he was distributing pills to other students.

Authorities transported the student, whose name has not been released, to the Shelby County Juvenile Detention Center after school administrators discovered he was distributing unidentified pills to his friends, said Montevallo Police Chief Steve Holt.

Students taken to the Juvenile Detention Center are usually held for 72 hours before they are released to a parent or guardian, Holt explained.

“It looks like one eighth-grader found some pills, and was sharing them amongst his friends,” Holt said.

Because police and school officials were not able to identify the pills, or determine who had taken them, they transported all students involved to the hospital “just to get checked out,” Holt said.

“We didn’t know what they were, and the kids didn’t know what they were, so we sent them to the hospital to get checked out just to be sure,” Holt said. “I talked to the hospital this morning, and they said nothing was coming back on the tests.

“Everything seems to be OK this morning,” he added.