California schools are battling a fentanyl crisis. Why are parents so oblivious?
Elena Perez, a short and dark-haired woman, looked nervous as she approached the microphone to address a handful of reporters in Downtown Los Angeles in early November. But when she spoke her words were steady and powerful.
“When my daughter passed away, not many knew about fentanyl. But when she died, it was global news, almost everyone found out,” she said in Spanish. “Now, it’s about preventing children’s deaths, and hoping it doesn’t happen again.”
In September 2022, Ms Perez’s daughter, Melanie Ramos, was found dead in a bathroom cubicle of her Hollywood high school. Investigators believe the 15-year-old had taken what she thought was a Percocet painkiller. The pill was cut with fentanyl, killing her.
According to her family’s lawyers, Melanie was the seventh student to overdose after taking drugs, likely laced with fentanyl, at her high school that year. The teenager’s family alleges that she may not have died had the school been more alert to the dangers of the deadly opioid and implemented proper supervision on its campus.
Her death stirred state lawmakers to pass a bill, which takes effect on New Year’s Day, mandating all California public schools formulate plans to prevent and confront overdoses on campuses. In anticipation, some schools have begun training staff, ranging from nurses to teachers, on how to administer life-saving overdose-reversal medication Narcan.
In September 2022, shortly after Melanie Ramos’ death, Narcan was made available at all K-12 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Since then, the medicine has been administered 55 times across the district – almost once per week – a spokesperson for LAUSD told The Independent.
Fentanyl – which is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine – is now behind one in five youth deaths
