Virginia school district is under fire after 9 high school students overdosed on fentanyl and parents weren’t notified

Loudoun County Public Schools is in hot water again, this time for withholding information from parents about multiple students overdosing on fentanyl.

Nine students overdosed in the past month at Park View High School, but nobody knew about it until the Loudoun County sheriff informed the public on Tuesday, ABC 7 reported.

Now there are major concerns about LCPS’s lack of transparency and failure to notify parents.  

“Parents have a right to know what’s going on in their child’s lives, especially in schools. Overdoses that occur on school grounds or are connected to the school must lead to an immediate parental notification,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in response to the news.  

He also signed an executive order on Wednesday mandating parents be informed within 24 hours of such incidents.  

According to the Loudoun County sheriff, four of the nine overdoses occurred on school property. Narcan was used in three cases, and school staff administered CPR twice.  

The other five Park View students overdosed off campus.  

The Loudoun community already has trust issues with school leadership after information about school sexual assaults was kept under wraps. 

The former LCPS superintendent was fired and later indicted for lying about one of the incidents, in which a female student was assaulted by a transgender peer in the girl’s bathroom. 

Afterwards, parents demanded school board members also step down.  

The current superintendent, Aaron Spence, never apologized for the district’s failure to notify parents about the overdoses, simply stating he was “concerned and saddened” by the crisis and that LCPS would take “active steps to support our students, families and staff with fentanyl awareness and education.” 

On the same day the sheriff informed the public of the overdoses, LCPS also sent an email to families, which read:  

“We are seeing students ingesting drugs prior to school and suffering the effects while in school. We are hearing reports of young people outside of school experiencing medical emergencies.” 

However, it did not inform parents about the number or nature of the overdoses.