Bakersfield student, 13, arrested after middle school employee exposed to fentanyl
A middle school student was arrested in Bakersfield last week after bringing fentanyl pills to school and causing a school employee to overdose, authorities said.
The Bakersfield Police Department responded to a report of a 13-year-old student at Chipman Junior High School possessing fentanyl on Friday at about 9:05 a.m., police said in a Facebook post.
While police were on the way to the school, they received a report of a yard supervisor possibly overdosing after coming into contact with the pills, authorities said.
Los Angeles County schools are sounding the alarm over fentanyl-laced ecstasy pills after three high school students overdosed.
A Kern High School District police officer arrived at the scene and administered Narcan, a medication used to treat opioid overdoses, to the school employee, who was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
Police said they discovered the student brought to school about 150 fentanyl pills, which were disguised as Percocet painkiller pills. The yard supervisor discovered the pills after the student got into a fight with another student, police said, adding that the 13-year-old also had about $300.
The student was arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance for sales purposes. Authorities said they don’t know if pills had been sold and distributed to other students. The investigation into how the student got the pills is ongoing.
Police encouraged parents to have conversations with their children about the dangers of fentanyl, which can be disguised as other drugs.
Parents whose children died of fentanyl-laced pills are demanding stricter penalties and are lobbying Silicon Valley for social media protections.
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