A 13-year-old student who was hospitalized with a fentanyl overdose this week died Saturday from his injuries.
The teenager reportedly suffered the overdose Thursday at The Sport and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford, Connecticut. NBC Connecticut reported that he died around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Police investigators searched the school and found 40 small bags of a substance in two classrooms, as well as the school gymnasium. The substance was later identified as fentanyl in powder form, a police spokesman told NBC Connecticut. Police said they believe the fentanyl was brought in by a student.
Newsweek reported that the student fell unconscious and collapsed in the gymnasium Thursday morning. The school nurse administered CPR to the student before Hartford Fire Department personnel arrived on the scene and took over. The school was locked down while DEA agents and State and local police searched the premises, then the students were dismissed, but not before they were required to decontaminate their shoes in case of exposure. Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez told NBC Connecticut that the school is currently being cleaned, she added, and “dust wipe sampling” is being conducted.
The two students who reportedly came in contact with the substance were briefly hospitalized, but have since been released and are at home, the NBC reported. None of the three teens have been named.
“Our city grieves for this child lost, for his loved ones, his friends, his teachers, and the entire SMSA family,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said in a statement. “We still have much to learn about the circumstances of this tragedy, and about how a child had access to such a shocking quantity of such deadly drugs, and our police department will continue their investigation and seek to hold accountable the adults who ultimately are responsible for this child’s death.”
In the meantime, Bronin added, “[I] make an ask of every parent to talk with your kids and make sure they know how serious and how dangerous any unknown substance can be and any drug can be.”
“Please have that conversation tonight,” he said. “We’re talking about seventh graders. It’s never too early to have that conversation.”
The proliferation of fentanyl within the U.S., specifically at the southern border, has seen an enormous spike in the past year. The Daily Wire reported in December that fentanyl seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection increased by an astonishing 134% in fiscal year 2021, between October 1st, 2020, and September 31st, 2021. Fentanyl has also far outpaced heroin in terms of the amount seized by officials at the southern border. CBP reported a total of 11,201 pounds of fentanyl seized at the border, more than double the 5,400 pounds of heroin officials found. As of January 2nd, CBP seized 2,158 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal year 2022, nearly ten times more than the 277 pounds of heroin seized.
In the first two weeks of December alone, CBP seized 105 pounds of fentanyl, The Daily Wire reported. Experts say that just one kilogram, equal to just over 2 pounds, of fentanyl, is enough of the drug to kill 500,000 people, so that 105 pounds of seized fentanyl is enough to kill more than 23.5 million people. Most of that fentanyl, more than 97 pounds of it, was seized in just two inspections on December 10 and 11.
Recent data from the CDC also showed that fentanyl-related deaths in the United States have nearly doubled since 2019, as The Daily Wire reported. Nearly 79,000 people between the ages of 18-45 were killed by fentanyl overdoses, making it the leading killer of Americans in that age group.