‘There is a fentanyl problem here': 9 overdoses reported at Loudoun County high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Park View Parent, have you thought of using special permission to send your child to a different high school? If not, why not?

This problem isn’t focused just at PVHS. It’s a nationwide issue. Just today on WTOP there was an article about opioids in Montgomery County teens: https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2023/11/treatment-prevention-action-montgomery-county-town-hall-on-the-opioid-crisis-generates-suggested-solutions/

My friends’ kids at more affluent schools in Loudoun report kids vaping cannabis in the bathrooms and taking other drugs. While the overdoses at Park View certainly show there is drug use (and someone dealing a lethal fentanyl laced drug) there, it’s happening at high schools everywhere.

It’s significantly worse at Park View and other poor schools. The facts are clear.

Thank you Jo no borders Biden . Never vote for a democrat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is from school board member Ian Sorotkin's FB page.

"Fentanyl is a national crisis, and one that we are not immune to in Loudoun County. What we need right now isn’t election eve politics, it’s help. The issue of fentanyl in our schools has been on our radar for some time. LCPS held six informational sessions on the matter last spring in collaboration with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and has been intentional about awareness and education in numerous newsletters, messages, and press releases. We now have Naloxone in all schools and have staff at each school trained in its use.

LCPS has protocols and supports in place when we discover that individual students are struggling with drug use. Those protocols offer support and resources to the student and their family. That said, supports for juveniles suffering with addiction issues are few and far between, waitlists are long, and treatment is often cost prohibitive. Now is the time to come together as a community and right that wrong. Our kids deserve better, and it is up to us to do better for them."

This. It is clear LCPS is trying to do everything they can to deal with this very difficult situation. The nut jobs make it sound like there is some magic wand to fix this or they think staging 500 cops inside the schools and turning them in to prisons would be better.

I’m an LCPS teacher. No, LCPS is NOT doing everything they can to help this. Not at all.

Wow is that right?
This is scary.
Where do you think most of it takes place inside the school? Is it in open view to kids in school? Can they see whoever is doing it?
I am SO scared of exposure to other kids.

That has nothing to do with LCPS and what it’s doing. Kids experiment with drugs. That’s not new. What is new is how deadly fentanyl is and how prevalent it is in the pills kids are getting and taking.

LCPS’ policy says that if a kid overdoses at school, the first offense is 3 days in ISR. The second offense is 5 or 7 days in ISR. The third offense is 10 days. After the 3rd offense (which mind you, means that likely the school crisis team has likely had to save their life 3 times) the school can “consider alternate placement.” But there’s nowhere for them to actually go. LCPS no longer has an alternative school like Douglass where kids can be removed from their home school environment and placed in a school with smaller numbers, more supervision, and more support.

North Star school isn’t used for this purpose - they don’t accept behavior referrals. Kids have to apply and be accepted and choose to go if they are accepted. They don’t have to go, and they can leave when they want and go back to their home school. These kids are addicted and just sitting in their school environment. The discipline matrix means there’s very little that can be done- they can’t be suspended for using drugs at school. Law enforcement will not pursue it as a criminal matter.

LCPS needs to reestablish alternative school options to SUPPORT kids who are overdosing at school repeatedly. Increasing days of ISR is not a solution. It leaves kids in crisis in schools where the staff and other students have to absorb the impact of their addiction and choices as well. Everytime an ambulance is called, the school goes on hold. This disrupts student movement throughout the building and shifts class changes and lunches sometimes, depending on when it happens. Kids and staff are watching classmates receive life saving measures * in classrooms.*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is from school board member Ian Sorotkin's FB page.

"Fentanyl is a national crisis, and one that we are not immune to in Loudoun County. What we need right now isn’t election eve politics, it’s help. The issue of fentanyl in our schools has been on our radar for some time. LCPS held six informational sessions on the matter last spring in collaboration with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and has been intentional about awareness and education in numerous newsletters, messages, and press releases. We now have Naloxone in all schools and have staff at each school trained in its use.

LCPS has protocols and supports in place when we discover that individual students are struggling with drug use. Those protocols offer support and resources to the student and their family. That said, supports for juveniles suffering with addiction issues are few and far between, waitlists are long, and treatment is often cost prohibitive. Now is the time to come together as a community and right that wrong. Our kids deserve better, and it is up to us to do better for them."

This. It is clear LCPS is trying to do everything they can to deal with this very difficult situation. The nut jobs make it sound like there is some magic wand to fix this or they think staging 500 cops inside the schools and turning them in to prisons would be better.

I’m an LCPS teacher. No, LCPS is NOT doing everything they can to help this. Not at all.

Wow is that right?
This is scary.
Where do you think most of it takes place inside the school? Is it in open view to kids in school? Can they see whoever is doing it?
I am SO scared of exposure to other kids.

That has nothing to do with LCPS and what it’s doing. Kids experiment with drugs. That’s not new. What is new is how deadly fentanyl is and how prevalent it is in the pills kids are getting and taking.

LCPS’ policy says that if a kid overdoses at school, the first offense is 3 days in ISR. The second offense is 5 or 7 days in ISR. The third offense is 10 days. After the 3rd offense (which mind you, means that likely the school crisis team has likely had to save their life 3 times) the school can “consider alternate placement.” But there’s nowhere for them to actually go. LCPS no longer has an alternative school like Douglass where kids can be removed from their home school environment and placed in a school with smaller numbers, more supervision, and more support.

North Star school isn’t used for this purpose - they don’t accept behavior referrals. Kids have to apply and be accepted and choose to go if they are accepted. They don’t have to go, and they can leave when they want and go back to their home school. These kids are addicted and just sitting in their school environment. The discipline matrix means there’s very little that can be done- they can’t be suspended for using drugs at school. Law enforcement will not pursue it as a criminal matter.

LCPS needs to reestablish alternative school options to SUPPORT kids who are overdosing at school repeatedly. Increasing days of ISR is not a solution. It leaves kids in crisis in schools where the staff and other students have to absorb the impact of their addiction and choices as well. Everytime an ambulance is called, the school goes on hold. This disrupts student movement throughout the building and shifts class changes and lunches sometimes, depending on when it happens. Kids and staff are watching classmates receive life saving measures * in classrooms.*

None of this is the job of a school. It’s the parent’s job, the community’s job, the health profession’s job, but definitely not the school’s. Somewhere along the way we decided schools were supposed to solve every problem. That’s patently absurd and it’s made the schools suck at the one thing they are supposed to do - educate students.

[Anonymous]

it is the governments job to protect our borders. But Democrats have allowed 8 million illegal aliens to flood the borders in the last 3 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it is the governments job to protect our borders. But Democrats have allowed 8 million illegal aliens to flood the borders in the last 3 years

That may be true, but Park View has been like this for at least the 16 years I've been here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think parental behavior will change to such an extent that student behavior will change, if the emails say the incident was an overdose?

"Hey, someone overdosed at your school today. Don't be an idiot and take pills that might kill you."

"Okay, Mom, I won't."

Parents should already be having these conversations with their kids, who will either listen or not. An email won't make a measurable difference.

No. The point is to make parents aware of what the signs are if their child is on drugs or how to respond if their kid OD’s at home. This community mostly speaks Spanish. They don’t have the awareness of fentanyl and how drugs now are a very different level of risk than regular kid experimentation. The parents simply need to be aware of what this looks like so they can respond as well if their child has a medical emergency at home or outside of school. They don’t realize themselves how deadly just one pill can be.

They don't realize the dangers of drugs because they speak Spanish? That's absurd and insulting. The schools have been hosting info sessions about this, and they send it out in Spanish as well as English. https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/domain/28227/flyers/OpioidsWhat%20youneedtoknowENG%20SPA.pdf

You don’t get it. A lot of these parents work 2-3 jobs. They don’t always have the ability to attend these information sessions. Their access to email is different than yours - they’re not sitting at a desk job all day. Their data gets cut off so if they don’t have wifi they don’t read their email. They know there’s drugs. These drugs are different. White Ashburn parents are in denial about these drugs, ok?

To the person who asked why wouldn’t someone just special permission their kid to another school- ridiculous. There’s a lot to live about this school . Special permissions isn’t the answer. The answer is LCPS reviewing their policies around drugs in schools to help schools combat an issue they ALL face.

The parents know. They aren't clueless and their neighbors are talking about it. Their kids are talking about it. I agree with your point about special permission. My kids went to different schools via special permission. They were never guaranteed a spot, they could be kicked out at any point and I had to manage their transportation. Try that as a working parent where no one from your neighborhood is attending that school. Also the school they special permission in to can't be at or over capacity. The vast majority of the schools they'd want to move to are over capacity.

Its only year by year in elementary school. For middle school you get to stay through the end of middle school and same for high school. The list of schools projected to be overenrolled changes every year, but once you are in, you are in as long as you file your paperwork on time. I would not send my child to Park View. We are at Dominion and its bad enough.

Not true. My kids were never guaranteed a spot and we special permissioned from elementary to high school. The bit about being in as long as you file your paperwork is absolutely wrong. My kid attended a high school freshman and sophomore year and then we were told because the school was over capacity that we had to go back to our base school. You do not know what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody asked any of you if you’d send your kid to Park View.

Is a discussion board and its a fair topic for discussion. We are highly considering leaving Dominion over this. I can't imagine staying at Park View if I had any other choice. Its simply not accurate to act like all schools are "the same."

You don’t go to Park View and aren’t considering it. This isn’t a question that was asked of you. So making it a point to say you wouldn’t send your kid there is crappy when 1600 kids DO go there. This isn’t a thread about you or your kid.

This thread is about LCPS, not just PVHS. Not all of the families have the ability to leave but some do and absolutely should. The Loudoun special permission process is as lenient and family friendly as they come. You can leave your kid at Park View if you want, but the student body makeup isn’t going to change. I have one about to graduate Dominion, I’ve seen it rapidly deteriorate and I highly doubt her sibling will end up going there, for the same exact reasons I wouldn’t go to Park View. Parents should know they have options.

Your problem is you actually know very little about anything but your own limited experience. I don't know where you found it lenient. It was hard for my family and we could not get special permission to go to the the school that would have been better for my child with disabilities. I know other families in the same boat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think parental behavior will change to such an extent that student behavior will change, if the emails say the incident was an overdose?

"Hey, someone overdosed at your school today. Don't be an idiot and take pills that might kill you."

"Okay, Mom, I won't."

Parents should already be having these conversations with their kids, who will either listen or not. An email won't make a measurable difference.

No. The point is to make parents aware of what the signs are if their child is on drugs or how to respond if their kid OD’s at home. This community mostly speaks Spanish. They don’t have the awareness of fentanyl and how drugs now are a very different level of risk than regular kid experimentation. The parents simply need to be aware of what this looks like so they can respond as well if their child has a medical emergency at home or outside of school. They don’t realize themselves how deadly just one pill can be.

They don't realize the dangers of drugs because they speak Spanish? That's absurd and insulting. The schools have been hosting info sessions about this, and they send it out in Spanish as well as English. https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/domain/28227/flyers/OpioidsWhat%20youneedtoknowENG%20SPA.pdf

You don’t get it. A lot of these parents work 2-3 jobs. They don’t always have the ability to attend these information sessions. Their access to email is different than yours - they’re not sitting at a desk job all day. Their data gets cut off so if they don’t have wifi they don’t read their email. They know there’s drugs. These drugs are different. White Ashburn parents are in denial about these drugs, ok?

To the person who asked why wouldn’t someone just special permission their kid to another school- ridiculous. There’s a lot to live about this school . Special permissions isn’t the answer. The answer is LCPS reviewing their policies around drugs in schools to help schools combat an issue they ALL face.

The parents know. They aren't clueless and their neighbors are talking about it. Their kids are talking about it. I agree with your point about special permission. My kids went to different schools via special permission. They were never guaranteed a spot, they could be kicked out at any point and I had to manage their transportation. Try that as a working parent where no one from your neighborhood is attending that school. Also the school they special permission in to can't be at or over capacity. The vast majority of the schools they'd want to move to are over capacity.

Its only year by year in elementary school. For middle school you get to stay through the end of middle school and same for high school. The list of schools projected to be overenrolled changes every year, but once you are in, you are in as long as you file your paperwork on time. I would not send my child to Park View. We are at Dominion and its bad enough.

Not true. My kids were never guaranteed a spot and we special permissioned from elementary to high school. The bit about being in as long as you file your paperwork is absolutely wrong. My kid attended a high school freshman and sophomore year and then we were told because the school was over capacity that we had to go back to our base school. You do not know what you are talking about.

Maybe the policy is newer than your kids. It’s written in now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody asked any of you if you’d send your kid to Park View.

Is a discussion board and its a fair topic for discussion. We are highly considering leaving Dominion over this. I can't imagine staying at Park View if I had any other choice. Its simply not accurate to act like all schools are "the same."

You don’t go to Park View and aren’t considering it. This isn’t a question that was asked of you. So making it a point to say you wouldn’t send your kid there is crappy when 1600 kids DO go there. This isn’t a thread about you or your kid.

This thread is about LCPS, not just PVHS. Not all of the families have the ability to leave but some do and absolutely should. The Loudoun special permission process is as lenient and family friendly as they come. You can leave your kid at Park View if you want, but the student body makeup isn’t going to change. I have one about to graduate Dominion, I’ve seen it rapidly deteriorate and I highly doubt her sibling will end up going there, for the same exact reasons I wouldn’t go to Park View. Parents should know they have options.

Your problem is you actually know very little about anything but your own limited experience. I don't know where you found it lenient. It was hard for my family and we could not get special permission to go to the the school that would have been better for my child with disabilities. I know other families in the same boat.

1. How long ago? ( because the policy has improved over time)

2. What schools? Our ES, MS and HS have a ton of special permission and no one is kicked out unless there are behavioral or attendance issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it is the governments job to protect our borders. But Democrats have allowed 8 million illegal aliens to flood the borders in the last 3 years

Hey genius.The cartels aren't using migrants or illegal immigrants to bring fentanyl into the country. Here is the pipeline: Chin>Mexico>here. The cartels use the same methods they have been using for decades, though fun twist--they're not trying to use mail to distribute their fentanyl

[Anonymous]

Be prepared as a parent, it's not a those kids issue, it's our issue. get narcan and give it to your kids to carry, carry it yourself.

It might be your kid who needs it someday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is from school board member Ian Sorotkin's FB page.

"Fentanyl is a national crisis, and one that we are not immune to in Loudoun County. What we need right now isn’t election eve politics, it’s help. The issue of fentanyl in our schools has been on our radar for some time. LCPS held six informational sessions on the matter last spring in collaboration with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and has been intentional about awareness and education in numerous newsletters, messages, and press releases. We now have Naloxone in all schools and have staff at each school trained in its use.

LCPS has protocols and supports in place when we discover that individual students are struggling with drug use. Those protocols offer support and resources to the student and their family. That said, supports for juveniles suffering with addiction issues are few and far between, waitlists are long, and treatment is often cost prohibitive. Now is the time to come together as a community and right that wrong. Our kids deserve better, and it is up to us to do better for them."

This. It is clear LCPS is trying to do everything they can to deal with this very difficult situation. The nut jobs make it sound like there is some magic wand to fix this or they think staging 500 cops inside the schools and turning them in to prisons would be better.

I’m an LCPS teacher. No, LCPS is NOT doing everything they can to help this. Not at all.

Wow is that right?
This is scary.
Where do you think most of it takes place inside the school? Is it in open view to kids in school? Can they see whoever is doing it?
I am SO scared of exposure to other kids.

That has nothing to do with LCPS and what it’s doing. Kids experiment with drugs. That’s not new. What is new is how deadly fentanyl is and how prevalent it is in the pills kids are getting and taking.

LCPS’ policy says that if a kid overdoses at school, the first offense is 3 days in ISR. The second offense is 5 or 7 days in ISR. The third offense is 10 days. After the 3rd offense (which mind you, means that likely the school crisis team has likely had to save their life 3 times) the school can “consider alternate placement.” But there’s nowhere for them to actually go. LCPS no longer has an alternative school like Douglass where kids can be removed from their home school environment and placed in a school with smaller numbers, more supervision, and more support.

North Star school isn’t used for this purpose - they don’t accept behavior referrals. Kids have to apply and be accepted and choose to go if they are accepted. They don’t have to go, and they can leave when they want and go back to their home school. These kids are addicted and just sitting in their school environment. The discipline matrix means there’s very little that can be done- they can’t be suspended for using drugs at school. Law enforcement will not pursue it as a criminal matter.

LCPS needs to reestablish alternative school options to SUPPORT kids who are overdosing at school repeatedly. Increasing days of ISR is not a solution. It leaves kids in crisis in schools where the staff and other students have to absorb the impact of their addiction and choices as well. Everytime an ambulance is called, the school goes on hold. This disrupts student movement throughout the building and shifts class changes and lunches sometimes, depending on when it happens. Kids and staff are watching classmates receive life saving measures * in classrooms.*

None of this is the job of a school. It’s the parent’s job, the community’s job, the health profession’s job, but definitely not the school’s. Somewhere along the way we decided schools were supposed to solve every problem. That’s patently absurd and it’s made the schools suck at the one thing they are supposed to do - educate students.

When the overdoses happen AT the school, it becomes the schools' problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is the governments job to protect our borders. But Democrats have allowed 8 million illegal aliens to flood the borders in the last 3 years

Hey genius.The cartels aren't using migrants or illegal immigrants to bring fentanyl into the country. Here is the pipeline: Chin>Mexico>here. The cartels use the same methods they have been using for decades, though fun twist--they're not trying to use mail to distribute their fentanyl

Sure they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is from school board member Ian Sorotkin's FB page.

"Fentanyl is a national crisis, and one that we are not immune to in Loudoun County. What we need right now isn’t election eve politics, it’s help. The issue of fentanyl in our schools has been on our radar for some time. LCPS held six informational sessions on the matter last spring in collaboration with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and has been intentional about awareness and education in numerous newsletters, messages, and press releases. We now have Naloxone in all schools and have staff at each school trained in its use.

LCPS has protocols and supports in place when we discover that individual students are struggling with drug use. Those protocols offer support and resources to the student and their family. That said, supports for juveniles suffering with addiction issues are few and far between, waitlists are long, and treatment is often cost prohibitive. Now is the time to come together as a community and right that wrong. Our kids deserve better, and it is up to us to do better for them."

This. It is clear LCPS is trying to do everything they can to deal with this very difficult situation. The nut jobs make it sound like there is some magic wand to fix this or they think staging 500 cops inside the schools and turning them in to prisons would be better.

I’m an LCPS teacher. No, LCPS is NOT doing everything they can to help this. Not at all.

Wow is that right?
This is scary.
Where do you think most of it takes place inside the school? Is it in open view to kids in school? Can they see whoever is doing it?
I am SO scared of exposure to other kids.

That has nothing to do with LCPS and what it’s doing. Kids experiment with drugs. That’s not new. What is new is how deadly fentanyl is and how prevalent it is in the pills kids are getting and taking.

LCPS’ policy says that if a kid overdoses at school, the first offense is 3 days in ISR. The second offense is 5 or 7 days in ISR. The third offense is 10 days. After the 3rd offense (which mind you, means that likely the school crisis team has likely had to save their life 3 times) the school can “consider alternate placement.” But there’s nowhere for them to actually go. LCPS no longer has an alternative school like Douglass where kids can be removed from their home school environment and placed in a school with smaller numbers, more supervision, and more support.

North Star school isn’t used for this purpose - they don’t accept behavior referrals. Kids have to apply and be accepted and choose to go if they are accepted. They don’t have to go, and they can leave when they want and go back to their home school. These kids are addicted and just sitting in their school environment. The discipline matrix means there’s very little that can be done- they can’t be suspended for using drugs at school. Law enforcement will not pursue it as a criminal matter.

LCPS needs to reestablish alternative school options to SUPPORT kids who are overdosing at school repeatedly. Increasing days of ISR is not a solution. It leaves kids in crisis in schools where the staff and other students have to absorb the impact of their addiction and choices as well. Everytime an ambulance is called, the school goes on hold. This disrupts student movement throughout the building and shifts class changes and lunches sometimes, depending on when it happens. Kids and staff are watching classmates receive life saving measures * in classrooms.*

None of this is the job of a school. It’s the parent’s job, the community’s job, the health profession’s job, but definitely not the school’s. Somewhere along the way we decided schools were supposed to solve every problem. That’s patently absurd and it’s made the schools suck at the one thing they are supposed to do - educate students.

When the overdoses happen AT the school, it becomes the schools' problem.

No. It’s illegal. Call the police and send them to jail. Not the school’s problem. I’m over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be prepared as a parent, it's not a those kids issue, it's our issue. get narcan and give it to your kids to carry, carry it yourself.

It might be your kid who needs it someday.

I know some want to believe all kids are equally at risk, but it’s simply not true.