Boy, 13, Dies After Fentanyl Overdose At Connecticut School: Police

A 13-year-old boy who fell unconscious at his Connecticut school last week after coming into contact with fentanyl has died, authorities said.

The seventh grader, who was one of three teens taken to a hospital on Thursday after coming into contact with the deadly drug inside Sport and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford, died on Saturday evening, Hartford police said in a statement.

The magnet school’s roughly 600 students had been ordered to shelter in place after the child collapsed inside of the school’s gymnasium just before 11 a.m. Suspected narcotics that were found close by later tested positive for fentanyl, police said.

A consequential sweep of the school by drug-sniffing dogs recovered nearly 40 bags of the synthetic opioid which the boy, who was fatally sickened, is believed to have brought to the school. The other two teenagers who complained of feeling dizzy were released from the hospital after likely having “minimal” contact with the drug, said Hartford Police Lieutenant Aaron Boisvert at a press conference.

“This is one more lesson that fentanyl is a poison, these drugs are a poison, and please if you’re a parent, have that tough conversation with your child tonight,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said at a press conference last week. “If anybody offers, suggests, that they experiment with or ingest some substance that they think is a drug or that they don’t know what it is, don’t do it, stay a mile a way and for God’s sake please report it so that we can try to protect your child, their friends, and every kid.”

Police said the drugs, which were described as found in packages that you’d see sold on the street with identifying logos, were found in two classrooms and the gym. When students left the school, they were instructed to walk through bleach and OxiClean, which dissolves and neutralizes the fentanyl, in case their feet had unknowingly become contaminated with the drug, said Boisvert.

The boy’s mother was said to be fully cooperative with the investigation. No arrests have been made as of Sunday, though authorities said they will hold all adults accountable if found responsible for the child’s death.