Parents terrified after videos of students overdosing in school bathrooms circulate around the internet
Cleveland, Texas - Parents are terrified as they say videos and photos of high-school students overdosing in their school bathrooms are circulating over the internet.
Onelia Santos says she has a 17-year-old son who goes to a Cleveland ISD high school and while she knows her son doesn't use drugs, she's afraid of the possibilities.
"If they're doing that, and it's fun to them, and they're getting kicks out of it, how do I know they won't put it in the cafeteria food and my kid is going to ingest it," she said.
Santos shared one of these videos with Fox 26. Out of respect for privacy, we have not posted the video, but it shows a teenage student unresponsive in a bathroom stall.
Santos explained, "A little bitty kid overdosing in a bathroom."
"I'm really scared, not only for my child but the other kids in the school," she said.
After seeing the videos, and photos and hearing about these overdoses from her son, Santos says she and several other parents reached out to the district. She says she was concerned that she wasn't alerted immediately when these incidents happened.
"We do not know anything about these overdoses until our students tell us," she said.
Santos says in response to them reaching out, the district sent a letter to parents and the superintendent posted a video to YouTube explaining that there have been several overdoses recently.
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Fox 26 reached out to Cleveland ISD who confirmed that since the start of school on August 8th there have been 14 "drug-related incidents" at secondary-level campuses. They say that in 7 cases, they have called an ambulance to the school because of student drug use. That's an average of more than one ambulance call per week.
In three of those cases, Narcan was used because of a drug overdose, according to the district.
"There's an uptick of fentanyl right now, and it's breaking its way into our community," said Matt Bieniek, Director of Communications and Media with Cleveland ISD. He says fentanyl-laced drugs are playing a role in these overdoses.
"One grain of fentanyl is enough to kill you," said Bieniek.
He says the district is doing everything they can to combat this extreme situation. He says they're planning town hall meetings and drug courses for the coming weeks. He also says they work directly with Cleveland Police to investigate where these drugs are coming from. Saying they've also introduced a drug sniffing dog, Sorka, who is on campus daily.
"We have kids being searched every day by our police department," he said. He says the severity of these drugs is overlooked by students. The district wants all eyes and ears on this issue so parents and students are aware and educated.
"We are doing everything we can to stop this, we hate to see this happen to our students," he said. "This is not a game. It's not something you want to gamble or risk. It's very dangerous."
According to the Texas Workforce Commission, One in four Texans have experienced an opioid overdose or know someone who has. Their website says that 2021 provisional data shows about 66 percent of opioid-related deaths in Texas involve synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl.
"How can we help this problem? How can we stop this problem?" Asked Santos.
Even with the steps being taken, Santos wonders how the district and community can get these drugs out of the schools.
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"Get it out of our school system. These children should not have to deal with this type of stuff," she said.