Seventh graders hospitalized after suspected overdose

One student, a 13-year-old boy, is still in “grave condition” after ingesting what an initial analysis showed to be fentanyl, according to Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.

HARTFORD — Three seventh grade students were hospitalized Thursday after police said at least one was suspected to have overdosed on fentanyl at the Sport and Medical Sciences Academy.

Officers were dispatched to the school around 10:45 a.m. after a student was reported to be unconscious, Hartford police spokesperson Lt. Aaron Boisvert said.

Boisvert said paramedics were already providing CPR when officers arrived, and the minor was transported to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford “for a possible overdose.” Two other minors who displayed signs of being “dizzy,” according to police.

Police said the incident occurred during a gym class and a teacher there observed the suspected overdose.

The teacher was “highly upset about what she had witnessed” and received support at the school, according to Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Leslie TorresRodriguez.

Police later located a powder in the gym area of the school that they believed to be an opiate, Boisvert said.

One student, a 13-yearold boy, is still in “grave condition” after ingesting what an initial analysis showed to be fentanyl, according to Hartford

Mayor Luke Bronin.

The others taken to the hospital are in stable condition. Police said it was too early to tell if the other two children ingested anything.

Drug-sniffing dogs searched the school and the department’s special investigative division, primarily tasked with juvenile matters, responded to the school, Boisvert said. The school went into a “soft lockdown” where students sheltered in place.

In their search, law enforcement found “multiple, additional bags of what we believe was fentanyl” in other classrooms and the gym, according to Bronin and Police Chief Jason Thody.

Bronin said it appeared that the drugs were brought to the school by a student.

“Fentanyl is a poison and it is a powerful poison,” Bronin said. “You don’t need to ingest it for it to poison you. Just being around it, breathing the air in a room where it’s in, can be dangerous.”

“This is powerful, it is poisonous, and coming into contact with it can be deadly,” he added.

Students, teachers and anyone who was in the school had to be decontaminated before they were allowed to leave the building Thursday. This involved them walking through a solution of bleach and OxiClean to dissolve and neutralize fentanyl, Thody said.

Parents of the collegeprep middle and high school were notified, including those of the students directly involved, according to police. The school serves more than 600 students and focuses on sports and medical sciences.

School officials plan to have additional support staff for staff and students.