Listen 6 min
Share
Comment on this story Comment
Add to your saved stories
Save
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) issued an executive order requiring school districts to notify parents of any drug overdoses in the school system within 24 hours after the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office announced that nine students at one school overdosed.
Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. ArrowRight
The sheriff’s office said that nine students at Park View High School overdosed in October and early November. All of the overdoses were nonfatal and appeared to involve fentanyl.
Four overdoses occurred on school grounds. Most of the victims received Narcan to revive them, the sheriff’s office said. Three had to be resuscitated using CPR.
Youngkin’s executive order directs the Virginia Education Department to develop guidance to ensure that all school districts notify parents of “school-connected overdoses” within 24 hours, work closely with law enforcement and boost education about the dangers of drug use.
As school overdoses rise, Arlington forum focuses on drug prevention
The order does not specify what is considered a “school-connected” overdose, but it cites the situation at Loudoun County Public Schools, which Youngkin claimed in a news release had waited more than 20 days to inform families about the overdoses.
Advertisement
“Parents have a right to know what’s going on in their child’s lives, especially in schools. Overdoses that occur on school grounds or are connected to the school must lead to an immediate parental notification,” Youngkin said in a statement. “School administrators’ first instinct when there is a problem cannot be to delay relevant information on critical children’s health and safety matters — it must be passed on to parents immediately.”
Loudoun County Superintendent Aaron Spence said in an interview that he was first informed of a single overdose in which a student had to be resuscitated at Park View in mid-October. He said he was not aware of the other overdoses until Oct. 26, when the sheriff’s office told him. Spence said he then moved quickly to convene a team that would develop an approach for security, education and communication. The school sent a communication to Park View families on Tuesday evening before students returned to school from a two-day break.
“I took immediate action when I became aware that there were concerning trends and that was brought to my attention by our sheriff,” Spence said.
Advertisement
The conversation in Loudoun surrounding how and when to notify parents about situations that happen at school is part of a long-standing criticism of the district that oversees more than 80,000 students. The school system was under fire in 2021 for its handling of two sexual assaults committed at two different schools by the same student.
The debate helped lay the groundwork for Youngkin’s 2021 campaign platform on parental rights and notification. As one of his first actions in office, the governor called for a grand jury investigation of Loudoun’s handling of the sexual assaults. The investigation found that the school system had not intentionally covered up the incidents but poorly managed its communication and response. The former superintendent was fired and faced charges related to the handling of the assaults.
Spence, who assumed the role as superintendent on Sept. 1, said there has to be a careful balance between informing the community and complying with student privacy laws with overdoses. There are other logistical challenges in notifying families within 24 hours, like addressing overdoses that happen off school campus and determining whether an emergency is caused by an overdose or something else.
Advertisement
Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman criticized the system’s message. He said he expected a notice to go out Friday, but the district sent nothing until Tuesday and did not sufficiently warn parents about what had happened. It didn’t specifically mention the string of overdoses, though it offered resources for parents and families.
Advocates urge D.C. to find new ways to stem rising opioid deaths
“When you have that many overdoses associated with a school, you’d think they would be specific in putting that information in,” Chapman said. “They left that information out.”
Share this article Share
The school system said its numbers and process for recording overdoses does not match that of the sheriff’s office, but the two agencies would meet this week to discuss how to be more consistent. The district does not have a policy or protocol on how to inform families of such situations. Spence said he is optimistic about working with the education department to devise one.
Advertisement
“I think there’s some real issues with regards to reporting and student privacy and what we’re reporting that we have to come together, both with the Department of Education and with our school board and our legal counsel, to identify and understand,” Spence said. “We’re gonna lean into that, and we’re gonna make sure that we’re doing the right thing for our kids.”
Other school districts also said they do not have specific guidance for reporting overdoses. Fairfax County Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, immediately informs the parent or guardian of a student suffering a medical emergency, spokeswoman Julie Moult said, but the system would review the education department’s guidance under Youngkin’s executive order and “ensure that it complies with federal and state student privacy laws.”
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said it has investigated 19 reports of overdoses among Loudoun juveniles this year, the same number authorities investigated in 2022.
Advertisement
Across the Washington region, youth overdoses went up once students were back in the classroom. Montgomery County Public Schools — Maryland’s largest school district — saw a nearly 77 percent increase in youth overdoses in 2022 compared with 2021. Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones attributed the rise to young people who were mistakenly ingesting fentanyl by taking counterfeit pills believed to be Percocet, Xanax or another drug.
Packed session offers advice and a lifesaving giveaway as local overdoses ris
The District saw a small uptick in fatal opioid overdoses during the same period, although the numbers are much smaller than in neighboring jurisdictions, according to the city’s chief medical examiner. Three youths under the age of 16 suffered fatal overdoses in 2021; that number grew to four in 2022. Two deaths have been reported so far this year.
The Loudoun sheriff’s office said counterfeit oxycodone pills that were blue, circular and sometimes marked “M30″ played a role in at least some of the recent overdoses.
Advertisement
David Deyhimy, an addiction medicine specialist, said these clusters of overdoses like the one at Park View High School were probably connected to a batch of stronger drugs making its way into the community.
“It could have been that all of a sudden, the more potent stuff was there,” Deyhimy said. “I think that’s more likely than all of a sudden a bunch more people just decided to try drugs in one month.”
He noted how dangerous the drugs could be and emphasized how important it is for parents to inform their kids about the risk.
Nicole Asbury and Lauren Lumpkin contributed to this report.
Share
Comments
Loading...