Hartford leaders plan to launch new task force after student dies from overdose

By AYAH GALAL, EVAN SOBOL, CHRISTIAN COLÓN, MARCY JONES

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    HARTFORD, Connecticut (WFSB) — A school community in Hartford continues to grieve the death of a 13-year-old who died from a fentanyl overdose.

The unidentified student passed away over the weekend after ingesting the fentanyl on Thursday.

It happened at the Sport and Medical Sciences Academy.

Social workers and psychologists provided support for students, families and staff on Monday.

Police said 40 bags of fentanyl were discovered at the school. An investigation is ongoing.

“In the wake of this, we are working as a community to make sure that we are expanding education and awareness efforts, everywhere we can in every part of our community,” said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.

The Hartford City Council is working on launching a new task force to work with the community and prevent future incidents from happening.

Monday night, the school met with families to address what happened.

“This drug fentanyl can show up in disguise in many different forms. We need to make sure that our kids know that,” Bronin said. “We need to make sure that our parents know that.”

“The City of Hartford is dear to our hearts and we will do whatever it takes and bring in whatever resources we need for it to be a safer city,” said council president Maly Rosado.

That includes considering the availability of the overdose treatment Narcan.

The life-saving medication can reverse effects of an opioid overdose.

“We should be thinking about how we can make it available in schools, in other city buildings, really anywhere and everywhere where the city has reach. We should be making it available and we should be training our folks to administer it,” said councilman Joshua Michtom.

Hartford Public Schools are not currently equipped with Narcan.

Mark Jenkins, executive director of the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance, said he wants to see Narcan more readily available in communities and public spaces.

“We just want to make sure that we can remove the stigma,” Jenkins said. “Begin to move towards some language, some inclusivity of different populations.”

Walls and floors of the Sport and Medical Science Academy have been decontaminated with Oxiclean, school officials said.

The school is receiving air filters for the spaces where the fentanyl was discovered.

School officials announced Monday evening that classes will be canceled for the school on Tuesday after they found that some fentanyl remained in a room.

A lab technician came in Monday night to wipe down areas of the school.

That sampling will be taken to a lab in New Jersey, something that was already done with the rest of it on Saturday. The results came back positive Monday night, which led to the cancelation of classes.

Sport and Medical Science Academy offered counseling for students on Tuesday.

School leaders and families held a private virtual meeting Monday night to discuss what’s next.

“It’s sad, especially since there is no security inside the schools and for our kids. I don’t know what will happen. As a mother, I wouldn’t even want to send my kid back,” Vanessa Claudio stated.

Claudio who has a 13-year-old son in the school, said it’s been a sad few days.

She said she also worries, because it seems like kids aren’t protected enough in a place they should be.

“I always pray for him so God can protect him. I hope he learns to make decisions if they offer him money, whatever they do, threaten him, to just say it,” Claudio said.

Officials said school will remain closed if fentanyl continues to be detected. For now, the decontamination process will be repeated.

Claudio sent her condolences to the victim’s family.

She said parents are facing tough conversations about drugs.

She prays her son learns to speak out before accepting anything from anyone.

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