A 13-Year-Old Died of a Fentanyl Overdose. Experts Say the Response Was 'Theater.'

[Jilly_in_VA]

The decision by government officials to sanitize students’ shoes with an OxiClean mixture and shut a school down for a mass cleanup after a grade 7 student overdosed on fentanyl is not based in reality, addiction experts say.

Last Thursday, a 13-year-old student from the Sport and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford, Connecticut, overdosed on fentanyl at the school and died two days later. According to Hartford police, two other seventh grade students came into contact with the drug and felt “dizzy” but were released from hospital after being evaluated.

Police searched the school Thursday and found 40 bags of powder fentanyl stashed in the gym and two classrooms, believed to have been brought into the school by the student who overdosed, Hartford police spokesman Lt. Aaron Boisvert told VICE News.

Students and staff at the college-preparatory middle and high school were made to walk through a solution of OxiClean and water before they could leave on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection told VICE News. The school remained closed as part of a mass sanitization effort, but reopened Wednesday.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjb3e3/connecticut-school-fentanyl-overdose

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Heartbreaking about the kid. The reefer madness around the fentanyl though? Ridiculous.

[captain queeg]

2. Have they jumped to the conclusion that the kid just touched the stuff?

If they think the kid had brought the stuff to school you think maybe he was taking it? I read stories about some cop making a bust and having to go to the hospital because he touched some suspect and roll my eyes.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. Fentanyl hysteria

is exactly that. Yes, fentanyl is a dangerous drug and overdosing can kill you, but proximity to it cannot get you "high", cannot damage you in any way, and cannot kill you. Even brief skin contact can't kill you. If it did, I would be dead a thousand times over, given the number of fentanyl patches I've stuck on people (and btw, I'm kind of allergic to it---it gives me a killer headache!).

Both of these incidents---the one in Connecticut and the one in Tennessee---were grossly mishandled from the beginning. The one in Connecticut, in particular, was a balls-up. Why did the school not have Narcan (naloxone) on the premises? And if they did, why didn't someone administer it to the kid? If he hadn't taken an opioid, it wouldn't have hurt him. And the theater is particularly unnecessary. No cleanup, no mass sanitation. Nobody in proximity to the kid needs Narcan. Sure, check out the kids who said they felt "dizzy", but that was most likely some hysteria and not drugs. The wanding, the drug-sniffing dogs, all that---that's kabuki theater designed to make the parents feel better, when what's needed is honest education from health professionals about the drug and Narcan in the nurse's or principal's office and people who know how/when to use it.

That is all. Rant mode off.

[dsc]

4. If the school didn't have a nurse on campus

which is quite likely, then they may not have been able to give him anything.

[RobinA]

5. Anyone Who Has Narcan

can administer Narcan. Hell, I would think schools would have it on hand where it is easily accessible. We were sitting in a decent restaurant and somebody ODd a couple tables away. We didn't have Narcan, but we were all trained in CPR until the authorities nonchalantly arrived.

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. Exactly

That's why I said either the nurse's office or the principal's office. Any damn civilian can administer Narcan. Piece of cake. Works like an Epipen.

[WarGamer]

14. agree 5000% re: Narcan on campus.

[SYFROYH]

6. 13-years old with 40 bags of fentanyl? WTF

That's some high-level dealing for a 13-year old.

[ripcord]

10. Someone was probably using him

I wouldn't be surprised if there are more students at other schools doing the same, could be a modern day Fagin using kids.

[Runningdawg]

8. Dead men (children) tell no tales and therfore make excellent patsies.

[Jilly_in_VA]

11. Let's not victim blame

OK?

[Runningdawg]

12. Better to belive a kid toted 40lbs of drugs to school? Than to look for the culprits?

[Jilly_in_VA]

13. 13 year olds

are not bright, generally speaking. And I didn't say anything about not looking for culprits. Your post seemed aimed at the dead kid.

[cinematicdiversions]

9. Hartford has been a lost city for a while

Unfortunately one we cannot blame on the Trumpers.