Parents and teachers are concerned with how MCPS handles drug overdoses

Parents and teachers are concerned with how MCPS handles drug overdoses (fox5dc.com)

Montgomery County parents demand more transparency after recent potential drug-related emergencies in schools

Youth overdoses in Montgomery County increased by 77% from 2021 to 2022 according to police data.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Montgomery County parents are demanding more transparency following a series of medical emergencies at schools that, according to police, are possible drug overdoses.

A Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) spokesperson says that they have administered naloxone, commonly referred to as Narcan, the medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses, 11 times this school year...

...According to the numbers provided by Montgomery County Police, there were 48 overdoses among people 21 or younger in 2022; 11 of those were fatal. In 2021, there were 27 overdoses and 5 fatal...

 11 possible overdoses at Montgomery Co. schools this school year | wusa9.com

Narcan demonstration at Wootton High School. @mymcmedia

Narcan demonstration at Wootton High School. @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/RUUNVWbMpj

— Maryam Shahzad (@maryam_mcm) December 13, 2022

'Heroin was my first love': 15-year-old MCPS girl trades sex for drugs to feed addiction

WATCH: According to the #CDC, Maryland and West Virginia are among the five worst states for fatal drug overdoses.

A Montgomery County girl says she got hooked on heroin by the age of 15.

“I actually posted an add online, 'Will f*** for dope.'"

Her story, tonight at 6 & 11pm. pic.twitter.com/CGOATFn8Jq

— Kevin Lewis (@ABC7Kevin) October 16, 2018

...That affection for opioids and yearning for "the next high" drove Lisbeth to inject and snort opioids in her bedroom, at friends' homes, on the street and at her high school.

"I snorted a line of oxycodone in the middle of lunch when everyone was around, right off the floor, in front of everyone," Lisbeth stated with a discernible sense of pride. "One time I was shooting up in the bathroom and I dropped my bent spoon and someone was like, ‘What the hell was that?’ Somehow I always got away with it.”..

https://wjla.com/news/local/girl-sex-heroin-overdoses-suicide-attempts

As opioid crisis intensifies, one Md. school system looks at a ‘recovery’ school

Kevin Burnes thinks his school saved his life. He arrived there at 14 years old, just out of rehab, and says it was exactly what he needed: a place where kids with drug and alcohol problems could stay on a path of recovery as they worked toward high school graduation.
“I have no question that it changed the course of everything I was doing,” said Burnes, now a music teacher and musician.
The school that made the difference was Phoenix, in Montgomery County, believed to have been the first of its kind in the country. It opened in 1979 amid concerns about student drug use and continued for decades before fizzling to an end four years ago at a time of flux for alternative programs.
Now the idea may be making a comeback, with school leaders looking into the possibility of a new “recovery” school program as the nation’s opioid epidemic draws wide attention. While some in Montgomery pose questions about cost and effectiveness, others say the program worked well years ago and could help those who struggle with addiction today...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/as-opioid-crisis-intensifies-one-md-school-system-looks-at-a-recovery-school/2017/03/19/d0f8a57c-0981-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html?utm_term=.44f7d4cd3b4c