Amid a controversy about whether Loudoun County Public School officials in Virginia notified parents about suspected student overdoses quickly enough, some parents say they were told about the incidents and praised the way school leaders handled them.
In a news release earlier this week, Sheriff Mike Chapman said there have been at least eight opioid overdoses of Park View High School students, including seven that have been reported in the last three weeks. Chapman said Thursday there was a ninth incident involving a Park View student this week.
Concerns about the notification process prompted Gov. Glenn Youngkin to intervene Wednesday, issuing an executive order to tell all parents about “school-connected” overdoses within 24 hours. But Amy Gazes, the school’s parent-teacher association president, said Principal Jason Jefferson has been communicative about the incidents.
“Every time this has happened, we get an email from him,” Gazes said. “It states that there’s been an unusual medical emergency. He cannot, by LCPS policy and HIPAA … because they’re minors, he cannot come out and say it was a drug overdose.”
In one email sent to the school community Oct. 17 and obtained by WTOP, Jefferson, Park View’s principal, said “something out of the ordinary happened in school today.” The message said a student experienced a medical emergency that required staff to “administer care” and call first responders.
In a separate email sent to families Oct. 31, Jefferson said the school is “seeing students ingesting drugs prior to school and suffering the effects while in school. We are hearing reports of young people outside of school experiencing medical emergencies.”
Gazes said she knows when something is happening at the school, because her daughter texts her that they’re using safety protocols. But by the time her daughter gets home, Gazes said a message has already been sent, “because [Jefferson] wants us to know what is going on.”
As opioid-related overdoses rise, Chapman, the sheriff, is sounding the alarm, urging parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of using drugs that don’t come from a doctor or pharmacy. There have been 19 reports of juvenile opioid overdoses this year, matching the total from 2022, he said.
Some of those overdoses, Chapman said, have been concentrated in Sterling, where Park View is located. The “M30” or “Perc-30” pills look authentic, he said.
A recent fentanyl forum featured 10 panelists talking about current issues, but Chapman said only about 60 people attended. He’s also alarmed by who’s using the drugs.
“What we were seeing before was maybe the 25 to 30 age bracket and 20 to 25,” Chapman said. “Now it’s getting down to teenagers. And that is really a cause for concern.”
In a message to families Wednesday, Loudoun County Superintendent Aaron Spence said there have been 10 suspected overdoses on school grounds across six high schools so far this school year. Those include situations in which someone is treated for a suspected overdose that involves Narcan, medical transport and/or CPR.
Naloxone, the generic form of Narcan, was given in four incidents during the entire 2022-23 school year, Spence said.
Suspected overdoses were reported at Broad Run, Briar Woods, Dominion, Loudoun County, Park View and Tuscarora high schools, Spence said.
Loudoun County, according to Spence, has naloxone at every middle and high school and has bolstered school security. An extra school resource officer has been working at Park View, Chapman said.
The school system is also working on community initiatives.
“It’s in the schools, it’s in the streets,” Park View parent Chrissy Lane said. “And we really just need to come together and act fast before we, unfortunately, are going to have to bury some children. And that is what we do not want to happen.”
Several parents said opioid overdoses are a national issue, rather than one unique to Loudoun County, and Gazes said Park View hosted a fentanyl awareness meeting last year in response to reports of overdoses in nearby Montgomery County, Maryland.
“[Staff’s] quick knowledge has, I think, helped save these kids,” Gazes said, adding that kids feel safe at school but are concerned about why the overdoses are happening.
In response to recent incidents, staff at Park View are routinely monitoring the hallways and have shut down some bathrooms to more effectively patrol them during school hours, Gazes said.
“I wouldn’t want my kid in any other school this moment, because of Dr. Jefferson’s leadership and his transparency and the fact that I know he’s taking care of the problems,” Gazes said.
Jefferson didn’t return WTOP’s email seeking information about strategies the school system is using in response to the overdoses.
Regarding Youngkin’s executive order about informing parents, a spokeswoman said notification for all parents within the school division should occur within 24 hours, and “VDOE will provide additional guidance to school divisions on enhancing prompt parental notification and preventing student overdoses.”
In a statement, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school system, said it will review state guidance “to ensure that it complies with federal and state student privacy laws.”
Prince William County Public Schools said currently, “our schools typically communicate safety concerns in a way that provides an awareness to parents while considering the privacy and well-being of students involved.”
A spokesman for Arlington Public Schools said the county is reviewing the executive order.
As for the troubling trends, Chapman said, “We want to get to the bottom of this before anybody dies.”
