Overdoses involving young people in Montgomery County, Maryland, have increased more than 75% from 2021 to 2022, authorities say.
On Tuesday, a student at John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring overdosed in the school, and was revived with Narcan, a medicine that can reverse the effects of opioids.
“Looks like a female student possibly overdosed on fentanyl. Fifteen-year-old female, not conscious but breathing," a dispatcher can be heard saying in police audio obtained by News4.
Earlier this month, 15-year-old Ashley Edwards died from an overdose at her home. She was also a student at Kennedy High School.
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Authorities say those overdoses are part of a growing problem in the county and the nation.
Five people under 18 fatally overdosed in 2021, and 22 others survived an overdose that year.
Then, the county saw a major spike in overdoses in 2022, with 11 deaths among young people, while 37 had non-fatal overdoses, officials said.
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News4's sister station Telemundo 44 spoke with a student who said drug use is a common occurence in school.
“You will see that every day basically, in every bathroom," she said.
Police and county officials warned Wednesday that counterfeit pills laced with deadly amounts of fentanyl are to blame for some overdoses.
All the public schools in the county carry Narcan in health rooms, but school officials are now discussing putting the nasal spray at more locations in schools where people can easily find it.
"We're actually talking about putting it in all the locations where AEDs are throughout the building so that it's much more ubiquitously available
for potential overdoses," Stoddard said.
“Schools are huge, many of them are huge, and the distance between the nurse's office and wherever a student is found can be the difference between life and death," said Laura Mitchell, with Montgomery Goes Purple.
Montgomery County Public Schools is holding a family forum on fentanyl on Saturday at Clarksburg High School that will include life-saving Narcan training.
