LOS ANGELES — A teenage girl died Tuesday night from an apparent fentanyl overdose at Bernstein High School in Hollywood while three other students were hospitalized, according to authorities.
Los Angeles Police Department officers responded at about 9 p.m. to a possible overdose at the school, located in the 1300 block of North Wilton Place, according to a news release.
A female student, who was suffering from a possible overdose, told her stepfather that her friend was in the girls’ bathroom, police said. The parent and a school employee found an unresponsive student inside the bathroom and attempted live-saving measures.
The Los Angeles Fire Department arrived and pronounced the student dead at the scene. The other student was taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
Police said they believe the students bought what they thought were Percocet pills from Lexington Park and confirmed that two other students were found suffering from possible overdoses in the area of the park, located in the 5500 block of Lexington Avenue.
All of the victims were students of Bernstein and other local high schools and were hospitalized in unknown conditions, according to the LAPD. Police are investigating whether the two overdoses at Lexington Park were related to the ones at the school.
The Los Angeles Unified School District confirmed a student passed away on campus and said it’s working with LAPD on the ongoing investigation.
“School will be open today and we will have grief counselors on-site and available to support all students and employees,” school officials said in a statement. “As we work together with LAPD to uncover the details of this tragic situation, our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of both students.”
The deceased student’s name hasn’t been released pending notification of her family, but students at Bernstein confirmed she was 15 years old. They also said that multiple students had overdosed in the first two weeks of school, including a boy who had been hospitalized, but ended up surviving.
“It’s very easy to acquire and get drugs in high schools in general,” said Natalia Ruiz, 14, a ninth grader at the school. “Some kid might take it just like that and something bad could easily just happen — another overdose.”
Chey Payne, also a ninth-grader, said drugs have always been a problem when they were in middle school, but since coming to high school, overdoses are becoming more prevalent.
“I know people don’t take it seriously and think it’s cool to do that stuff,” she said, “but it really could affect your family and others around you.”
Naomi Coarado, 14, said the overdoses have made her more careful about whom to trust.
“Just be careful if anyone offers you something because you never know what they put in it,” she said.
Dusty the Rapper, 40, whose 16-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter attend the school, said he’s never heard of overdoses happening at Bernstein before.
“I was really, really surprised that this school isn’t on security enough to let kids go places and wander off and do drugs,” he said. “I’m really surprised this happened and I’m shocked because my kids are athletes at this school, and I’m scared that they could get peer pressured into doing drugs.”
He added that he hopes the school and parents step up to make sure another overdose death doesn’t occur at the school.
“I hope we don’t just let it go and sweep it under the rug,” he said. “I hope we really address the issue and come together and figure out some kind of drug awareness program to indicate when students are using drugs or feel like they are under the influence. We need to get to them early before it leads to this.”
Police warned that it’s becoming more common for drug dealers to lace pills with fentanyl — a highly addictive synthetic opioid used in medical settings to address extreme pain. The drug is up to 100 times more potent than morphine, making it very dangerous outside of medical settings.
Authorities have urged anyone with information on the overdose investigation should contact West Bureau Homicide investigators at (213) 382-9470.
Chey said she’s never been curious about drugs in the first place because of family history and the recent death has made her even more apprehensive.
“I’ve never really done drugs before and this just added onto it about how I’m so scared to do that,” she said. “Especially too scared to trust anyone.”
