A combination of vanilla rum and six middle school students leads to big trouble in Loudoun County.

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School officials at Lunsford Middle School say the students were busted drinking before classes this morning.

Fellow students witnessed classmates drinking on the bus and told school officials.

Loudoun County authorities allege that five boys and a girls, ranging in age from 12-14, drank varying amounts of vanilla rum on the school bus and in the cafeteria Thursday…prior to the morning bell.

At around 10 a.m. one of the students showed up at the school's clinic, complaining of feeling sick.

School spokesperson Wayde Byard says none of the students were legally drunk, but two of them consumed enough alcohol to register on a breathalyzer.

Under school policy the students involved can be punished. But first, they're being offered help.

School officials are encouraged that classmates who witnessed the drinking alerted adults who confiscated the alcohol.

"They stepped up," one said. "It's not snitching. It's not narcing. It's being concerned about your school community and your fellow students."

In November, a physics teacher at Lunsford resigned after authorities accused him of being drunk at school, a charge he denied.

Loudoun County authorities say criminal charges have not been filed in the case of the students.

But investigators say they would like to know where the students got the alcohol.