Do we talk about emails from Superintendent (overdose)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the purpose of these email notifications other than to fan the flames of gossip and speculation? Why did the governor want this type of communication going out across the county? There are other ways to remind kids that drugs are bad. I feel awful for the kids who overdosed and are subjects of these emails as well as their parents. They deserve privacy while navigating this problem.

I am grateful these messages are going out. Whether the email goes out or not, there will be gossip and speculation. Too many parents put their heads in the sand or are ignorant of that deaths are really happening in our schools even before HS. I wish we had a sense of how many non-fatal ODs are occurring. These happen in plain sight — in the past and to a certain extent even now — administrators gaslight student witnesses. Kid at our HS OD’d in the middle of the cafeteria only a couple years ago and students were made to continue on as if nothing was happening. WTF?! The kid didn’t die and was back playing his sport the next day. No wonder so many kids are checking out from school.

There will always be gossip and speculation but sending county wide emails spreads it from just that school to hundreds of thousands of people (parents, grandparents, guardians). These are tweens and teens that are the subject of these emails. Imagine going through the trauma of overdose, already having everyone in your school know, and then now everyone else associated with FCPS knowing as well. Even if you do know it's going on, parent who want to stick their head in the sand will still say things like PP blaming "other" bussed in kids because it couldn't possibly be their snowflake doing drugs.

As a society, we need to put more other spotlight on teams using fentanyl. I’m pretty sure the parent dealing with their kid having an overdose at school is not focused on an FCPS email. If they are, then maybe their focuses in the wrong place.

We can spotlight drug use in middle/highschools without singling out one child in the middle of their crisis. A parent should be paying attention to an email where their child is the topic of discussion going out to hundreds of thousands of people. I'm sure that isn't going to help the child in crisis. Notify the others within that school, sure, but everyone affiliated with every FCPS kid? Nope, not needed.

This didn't happen in a vacuum, PP. For every overdose, how many kids were taking the same drug but didn't OD?

This is a widespread issue and needs to be communicated to the wider community.

No kid thinks it could happen to them. There is more than one way to communicate with kids. This isn't the only way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the purpose of these email notifications other than to fan the flames of gossip and speculation? Why did the governor want this type of communication going out across the county? There are other ways to remind kids that drugs are bad. I feel awful for the kids who overdosed and are subjects of these emails as well as their parents. They deserve privacy while navigating this problem.

I am grateful these messages are going out. Whether the email goes out or not, there will be gossip and speculation. Too many parents put their heads in the sand or are ignorant of that deaths are really happening in our schools even before HS. I wish we had a sense of how many non-fatal ODs are occurring. These happen in plain sight — in the past and to a certain extent even now — administrators gaslight student witnesses. Kid at our HS OD’d in the middle of the cafeteria only a couple years ago and students were made to continue on as if nothing was happening. WTF?! The kid didn’t die and was back playing his sport the next day. No wonder so many kids are checking out from school.

There will always be gossip and speculation but sending county wide emails spreads it from just that school to hundreds of thousands of people (parents, grandparents, guardians). These are tweens and teens that are the subject of these emails. Imagine going through the trauma of overdose, already having everyone in your school know, and then now everyone else associated with FCPS knowing as well. Even if you do know it's going on, parent who want to stick their head in the sand will still say things like PP blaming "other" bussed in kids because it couldn't possibly be their snowflake doing drugs.

As a society, we need to put more other spotlight on teams using fentanyl. I’m pretty sure the parent dealing with their kid having an overdose at school is not focused on an FCPS email. If they are, then maybe their focuses in the wrong place.

We can spotlight drug use in middle/highschools without singling out one child in the middle of their crisis. A parent should be paying attention to an email where their child is the topic of discussion going out to hundreds of thousands of people. I'm sure that isn't going to help the child in crisis. Notify the others within that school, sure, but everyone affiliated with every FCPS kid? Nope, not needed.

This didn't happen in a vacuum, PP. For every overdose, how many kids were taking the same drug but didn't OD?

This is a widespread issue and needs to be communicated to the wider community.

No kid thinks it could happen to them. There is more than one way to communicate with kids. This isn't the only way.

Let's continue to communicate with kids in every way possible.

If just one parent saw this email and decided to have a conversation with their child, I would say the email served it's purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:more deadly than guns.

Well, if my kid avoids drugs he won’t overdose. But if my kid avoids guns, someone else’s kid could still murder him in a rampage at school. So I’d still argue that guns are a greater threat to the school community. You can’t be safe and smart and avoid dying by someone else’s gunfire the way you can be safe and smart and avoid dying by a drug overdose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the purpose of these email notifications other than to fan the flames of gossip and speculation? Why did the governor want this type of communication going out across the county? There are other ways to remind kids that drugs are bad. I feel awful for the kids who overdosed and are subjects of these emails as well as their parents. They deserve privacy while navigating this problem.

Because MAGA's love gossip and hate.

You are so fueled by hate towards "MAGA" that you refuse to see the value in this transparency:

A reminder to us all that this stuff is making its way into our kids schools. It's real.

Talk to your kids.

It's MAGA-adjacent because the governor's edict only applies to public schools. While maybe the notification to parents has value - I don't think it does, but I'm not oblivious/a NIMBY/a foreign national - the decision to require it doesn't come from a place of community education, but rather to [further] erode public trust in public schools.
Guarantee your MS and HS children know about drug use at their schools. I was the goody-two-shoes-est of middle schoolers and I still knew what crowd was drinking, having sex, etc.

It is quite puzzling as to the "requirement" for only public schools to post AND, as I recall, the posting occurs regardless of where the overdose occurs. So posting is required even if the overdose occurs off school grounds. There was an earlier postings of a Justice student and I believe W-L student and those overdoses(separate) occurred in their homes. I do think the required posts serve as a wake up call to severity of the issue. It is just ridiculous that it only pertains to public school children. We all know the issue is everywhere and private children also partake in drug abuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:more deadly than guns.

Well, if my kid avoids drugs he won’t overdose. But if my kid avoids guns, someone else’s kid could still murder him in a rampage at school. So I’d still argue that guns are a greater threat to the school community. You can’t be safe and smart and avoid dying by someone else’s gunfire the way you can be safe and smart and avoid dying by a drug overdose.

Then I guess the million dollar question is: are you sure your kid is staying away from drugs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:more deadly than guns.

Well, if my kid avoids drugs he won’t overdose. But if my kid avoids guns, someone else’s kid could still murder him in a rampage at school. So I’d still argue that guns are a greater threat to the school community. You can’t be safe and smart and avoid dying by someone else’s gunfire the way you can be safe and smart and avoid dying by a drug overdose.

Then I guess the million dollar question is: are you sure your kid is staying away from drugs?

A lot of kids don't even realize what they are taking has fentanyl in it. They think they are buying an adderall or xanax pill.

Also, drug overdoses far outnumber firearm deaths. https://fortune.com/2022/10/28/fentanyl-drugs-overdose-deaths-cocaine-meth-synthetic-opioids/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because Loudoun had like 10 overdoses at a high school over just a few weeks and waited to notify any parents about the situation. That’s why we have the email requirement now

Parents need to be notified when a child that is not theirs is notified? Or that there are drugs in middle and high schools? They do t already know this?

These notices are silly.

No, a lot of parents don't realize how widespread it is. I have talked to foreign-born parents that are shocked to find out there are drugs at schools. I think the emails are important, if only to raise community awareness.

Oh for goodness sake. OFC they know. It's all over the news. There are all sorts of PSAs. Even outside those silly "notification" there is drug related information in FCPS emails.

Whatever, if Governor Sweatervest ordered them, it's probably the least offensive thing he's done as far as the schools are concerned. And has no impact on anything. So, it's no harm, no foul. But, lbh, they are not DOING or contributing anything to the drug issue.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate these emails. Had a good conversation with my middle schooler yesterday evening about the notification.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:more deadly than guns.

Not even close. In fact, you should be embarrassed for writing that.

https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/issue-brief/child-and-teen-firearm-mortality-in-the-u-s-and-peer-countries/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwvKtBhDrARIsAJj-kTgfHI72UzkcDd-_w26gEvL-qshxFYTWpifjgCY2eZNcM45R3Z8D0f8aAlq3EALw_wcB

[Anonymous]

As much as I understand the impulse for more transparency, I can see why being slow to release information might be appropriate in some instances, especially if law enforcement is investigating and they don't want to tip a suspect. The 10 overdoses in LCPS were almost certainly traceable back to the same seller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:more deadly than guns.

Well, if my kid avoids drugs he won’t overdose. But if my kid avoids guns, someone else’s kid could still murder him in a rampage at school. So I’d still argue that guns are a greater threat to the school community. You can’t be safe and smart and avoid dying by someone else’s gunfire the way you can be safe and smart and avoid dying by a drug overdose.

+1
not downplaying the drug issues but guns are a WAY bigger problem for exactly this reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:more deadly than guns.

Well, if my kid avoids drugs he won’t overdose. But if my kid avoids guns, someone else’s kid could still murder him in a rampage at school. So I’d still argue that guns are a greater threat to the school community. You can’t be safe and smart and avoid dying by someone else’s gunfire the way you can be safe and smart and avoid dying by a drug overdose.

+1
not downplaying the drug issues but guns are a WAY bigger problem for exactly this reason.

I bet that’s also what the parents of the kid who OD’d thought too. Parents need to wake up. Hopefully these emails will help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the purpose of these email notifications other than to fan the flames of gossip and speculation? Why did the governor want this type of communication going out across the county? There are other ways to remind kids that drugs are bad. I feel awful for the kids who overdosed and are subjects of these emails as well as their parents. They deserve privacy while navigating this problem.

I am grateful these messages are going out. Whether the email goes out or not, there will be gossip and speculation. Too many parents put their heads in the sand or are ignorant of that deaths are really happening in our schools even before HS. I wish we had a sense of how many non-fatal ODs are occurring. These happen in plain sight — in the past and to a certain extent even now — administrators gaslight student witnesses. Kid at our HS OD’d in the middle of the cafeteria only a couple years ago and students were made to continue on as if nothing was happening. WTF?! The kid didn’t die and was back playing his sport the next day. No wonder so many kids are checking out from school.

There will always be gossip and speculation but sending county wide emails spreads it from just that school to hundreds of thousands of people (parents, grandparents, guardians). These are tweens and teens that are the subject of these emails. Imagine going through the trauma of overdose, already having everyone in your school know, and then now everyone else associated with FCPS knowing as well. Even if you do know it's going on, parent who want to stick their head in the sand will still say things like PP blaming "other" bussed in kids because it couldn't possibly be their snowflake doing drugs.

As a society, we need to put more other spotlight on teams using fentanyl. I’m pretty sure the parent dealing with their kid having an overdose at school is not focused on an FCPS email. If they are, then maybe their focuses in the wrong place.

We can spotlight drug use in middle/highschools without singling out one child in the middle of their crisis. A parent should be paying attention to an email where their child is the topic of discussion going out to hundreds of thousands of people. I'm sure that isn't going to help the child in crisis. Notify the others within that school, sure, but everyone affiliated with every FCPS kid? Nope, not needed.

This didn't happen in a vacuum, PP. For every overdose, how many kids were taking the same drug but didn't OD?

This is a widespread issue and needs to be communicated to the wider community.

Agree.
I view these emails as "canaries in a coal mine" .

(re: how many are using but didn't OD or at least not on school grounds or reported to school admin).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:more deadly than guns.

Well, if my kid avoids drugs he won’t overdose. But if my kid avoids guns, someone else’s kid could still murder him in a rampage at school. So I’d still argue that guns are a greater threat to the school community. You can’t be safe and smart and avoid dying by someone else’s gunfire the way you can be safe and smart and avoid dying by a drug overdose.

+1
not downplaying the drug issues but guns are a WAY bigger problem for exactly this reason.

I bet that’s also what the parents of the kid who OD’d thought too. Parents need to wake up. Hopefully these emails will help.

+1, drug overdosing, is showing a greater increase over the past few years than guns. The information on death by guns was also impacted by guns used at home, not just school violence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the purpose of these email notifications other than to fan the flames of gossip and speculation? Why did the governor want this type of communication going out across the county? There are other ways to remind kids that drugs are bad. I feel awful for the kids who overdosed and are subjects of these emails as well as their parents. They deserve privacy while navigating this problem.

The purpose — lots of talk throughout the state about how drug-riddled FCPS is. It’s a great political score. Of course, no one making these claims has the sense to realize that the population of Fairfax County is 100 times greater than their corner of podunk Virginia. So our 10 overdoses is statistically smaller than their 1 overdose. Maybe, just maybe it gets a parent to talk to their kid a little more.