Virginia high school suffers eight opioid overdoses in three weeks sparking police investigation amid fears fentanyl is driving the epidemic
- Eight Park View High School students have overdosed in the past three weeks
- Four of these took place on school grounds
- The incidents in Loundon County bring to 18 the total number of investigations into opioid overdoses among youth this year
Virginia police are investigating how and why eight students at the same high school overdosed in just three weeks, amid fears the incidents were caused by fentanyl.
Park View High School in Sterling, a 40-minute drive from Washington, D.C., is in the middle of an opioid epidemic that local police say is linked to fentanyl.
In total, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is investigating nine incidents of Park View students overdosing this year, bringing the total number of youth opioid overdose investigations to 18 in 2023.
Although none of the Park View incidents were fatal, all required medical intervention in the form of CPR, administration of Naxolone or a visit to the hospital.
Four of the overdoses in the past three weeks occurred on school grounds, three of which required the administration of Naxolone and two of which required CPR of students by staff.
The terrifying incidents mark the most overdoses the county has ever seen in such a short period of time, with the most recent case occurring earlier this week on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said. NBC News.
Four of the opioid overdoses occurred on the school grounds of Park View High School in Virginia
While none of the incidents at Park View were fatal, they did require some sort of medical intervention
The spokesman, Thomas Julia, said the sheriff’s office believes fentanyl was involved because all the students were taking round blue pills marked “M30.”
The M30 pills are believed to be knock-off oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, although laboratory results have yet to confirm this.
For the time being, the police are trying to trace the origin of the pills.
Julia said: ‘We want to protect the children at school. “We want to make sure they are more aware of the dangers of fentanyl, which can be fatal in one dose.”
Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Aaron Spence, who leads Park View High School, said he was “concerned and saddened” about the opioid crisis affecting young people in the county.
“When students come to school, we want them to learn and thrive. But above all, we want them to live.
“We need to come together as a community to find ways to help our youth who are facing these issues.”
He added that the school district began a fentanyl awareness program last year.
But the sheriff’s office said more would be done to combat the problem.
Julia told NBC News, “Normally we let the schools take the lead on this, but honestly, we felt like there wasn’t enough public information being put out about what was actually happening.”
Last year it was reported that American teenagers are the fastest growing group of people dying from fentanyl overdose.
The number of overdoses among school-age children in the US doubled between 2019 and 2020 and rose another 20% last year. BBC reported.
And earlier this year, a study found that young children under the age of five are increasingly becoming victims of accidental poisonings caused by fentanyl.
MailOnline has contacted Loundon County Public Schools for comment.