CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Wednesday evening, Chesapeake Public Schools hosted a presentation and discussion about the opioid epidemic.
The forum, called “Not My Kid,” is a joint effort between the school division and the Chesapeake Police Department in an effort to keep fentanyl out of schools.
Officers at the forum say fentanyl is responsible for a steep uptick in fatal overdoses in the city.
“I definitely don’t want that to be me, because I know kids my age can be curious," said 12-year-old Kendrick Ammons, a student at Indian River Middle School. "I don’t want to be one of those people who just die over something that could’ve easily been prevented.”
Kendrick attended the forum at Great Bridge Middle School with his father, Richie.
“I just wanted him to see how serious it was, and I plan on even talking about it to my college-aged child about it as well," Richie said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the drug is 50 times stronger than heroin. More than 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Oftentimes fentanyl is used to lace other drugs and is unknown to the person taking it.
Chesapeake school administrators say this is why they’re taking proactive steps to help keep the community safe.
“We're very thankful for our partnership with the police department. They've stepped in to give the presentation on the trends they're seeing just to, you know, put the information in the hands of our parents and our students to make sure they’re equipped to, deal with this growing epidemic," said Chesapeake Public Schools Family and Community Engagement Specialist Laura Lerf.
Just this month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order after a string of student overdoses at schools in Northern Virginia. The executive order requires schools to notify all families if someone overdoses while on campus in their school division.
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), last year, the administration seized the equivalent to more than 397 million lethal doses of fentanyl.