Three seventh graders were hospitalized Thursday after being exposed to fentanyl at a Connecticut middle school, 13-year-old boy in “critical condition” Because of the overdose, officials said.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents, state police and Hartford Police had closed the Academy of Sports and Medical Sciences in Hartford, officials said. And drug-sniffing dogs found several bags that a preliminary analysis said contained fentanyl.
Officials said the 13-year-old victim collapsed in a gymnasium, but the drug appeared to have been taken elsewhere on the campus.
“It is believed the student ate something in class,” Hartford Public School superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez told reporters.
It was not immediately clear whether the school would be in session on Friday.
Two other seventh graders were admitted to the hospital for observation after being in class with the fallen teen. A teacher suffering from a panic attack was offered help.
“Our entire community is praying for this child in the hospital and for his family. And again [I] Ask every parent to speak with their children and make sure they know how serious and dangerous any unknown substance and any drug may be,” said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronnin.
“Please have a conversation tonight. We’re talking about seventh grade. It’s never too early to have that conversation,” he said.
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opium that can cause respiratory distress and eventually death if the opioid antidote NARCAN is not administered quickly.
Fentanyl is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to To give, and many of its derivatives, such as carfentanil, are even stronger,
Drugs account for 75 percent of drug overdose deaths in the US, which crossed 100,000 for the first time last year,