In recent weeks, several Los Angeles Unified School District students have overdosed on drugs, including one possibly laced with fentanyl
Tuesday night, a 15-year-old Los Angeles high school student died and another was hospitalized after overdosing on fentanyl-laced pills.
After their children failed to return home from Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood, the parents of two 15-year-old girls became concerned.
The stepfather of one girl found her collapsed in a courtyard at the school while searching for her.
An LAPD officer responded to the school at about 9 p.m. after one of the girls said she bought what she thought were Percocet pills from nearby Lexington Park.
As officers entered the bathroom, they found the female friend unresponsive. Paramedics pronounced her dead after they were unable to resuscitate her.
It is believed that the initial victim is in stable condition after being taken to the hospital.
Two other people were hospitalized that night after they overdosed on pills believed to be connected to that same drug dealer.
According to the news outlet, one of the victims was a 17-year-old boy.
Over the past few weeks, six students have overdosed on drugs at Los Angeles Unified School District.
In response to Tuesday’s events, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho promised to focus on catching drug dealers.
During a news conference on Wednesday, he said, “We will put the full weight of this school system and the full strength of the city’s law enforcement community into finding out who you are, who your supporters are, and to bring justice to the grieving parents.”
Bernstein High School was open for classes Wednesday, with grief counselors present, the district said.
Authorities, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, are investigating the overdoses, Carvalho said.
For more on this story, please consider these sources:
- Teen girl dead from fentanyl-laced pills at Hollywood school is latest in rash of student overdoses Los Angeles Times
- Los Angeles girl dead, another hospitalized, after suspected fentanyl overdose at Hollywood high school Fox News
- Teen found dead of overdose at Hollywood school, 3 others hospitalized CBS Los Angeles
- Teenage girl dead after overdose at Bernstein High School in Hollywood KABC-TV
- ‘Perished at this school on the coldness of a bathroom floor’: Fentanyl suspected in death of 1 high school student, overdoses of 3 other teens KTLA Los Angeles