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Tag: fighting fentanyl

  • Their son died of an overdose. Now, this Fairfax Co. family is warning others to prevent similar tragedies – WTOP News

    Cayden Foster, Sean and Afrodita’s only child, died of a fentanyl overdose in early 2023. Now, the parents are working with schools and police to prevent similar tragedies.

    This story is Part 2 of WTOP’s four-part series, “Fighting Fentanyl” which explores how the drug is impacting students, families and schools in the D.C. area.

    When Sean and Afrodita Foster prepare to speak to Loudoun County Public Schools students about the dangers of fentanyl, the kids anticipate “another boring assembly.”

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    Va. couple who lost their son is raising awareness to make sure nobody has to feel their pain

    But instead, students share.

    “This is exactly what we needed to hear. We had no idea that these pills were as dangerous as they were,” Sean Foster said.

    There’s one student, though, who didn’t get that message in time.

    Cayden Foster, Sean and Afrodita’s only child, died of a fentanyl overdose in early 2023 at 18 years old. Afrodita found him dead in his bed one morning when he should have been getting ready for school.

    Sean said his son’s death had left him and his wife without purpose, but now, their mission is to make sure other parents don’t have to feel their pain.

    “We don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” Afrodita said. “I want to believe that if there would have been more awareness at the time, around the time when this happened with Cayden, our son, that it might have not happened.”

    Sharing their stories to other students

    She and her husband have spoken to thousands of Loudoun County Public School students, as part of programming that brings community members into schools. They also communicate with college students and stay in touch with the Fairfax County Police Department’s overdose task force.

    Sometimes, after a presentation, school officials follow up with small group classroom discussions to debrief. The feedback from students has been positive, and many kids have opened up about their experiences with drugs.

    One student had heard about fake blue Percocet pills, which were found in Cayden’s wallet at the time of his death, but shared that’s the reason they take Xanax. It gave Sean the opportunity to explain that if pills aren’t from a prescription bottle, they’re likely fake.

    In other cases, the assembly has led students to approach school counselors with concerns about their friends.

    “We stress that, in Cayden’s case, if one person would have said something to us that he was hanging out with these people, or that night, it was preventable,” Afrodita said. “But nobody said anything.”

    ‘You’ve got an obligation to say something’

    Cayden Foster’s parents, Sean and Afrodita, stand in front of posters and flowers given to them by Cayden’s peers following his death. (WTOP/Scott Gelman)

    The Fosters remain in touch with Cayden’s friends, who are now in college. When they come back to their hometowns for breaks, the Fosters continue to warn them about fentanyl. Some of the students describe seeing cocaine use on college campuses across the country.

    “We keep on stressing that you don’t know where that deadly amount of fentanyl is,” Afrodita said. “You can be first, you can be last. It can be your first time, your third time, but it can get you. Just don’t trust anybody with your life.”

    They also rely on Fairfax County police’s overdose task force to learn about the latest trends. Officials told them that, along with pills, powder is getting mixed into substances, such as cocaine and marijuana. They’ve testified before state lawmakers too.

    After learning new information about Cayden’s death about a year ago, the couple has tweaked their messaging. They found out Cayden was on FaceTime with someone when he started going into respiratory distress, and that person looped in another friend.

    “They essentially watched him die and didn’t do anything. Even more so in our messaging is, you’ve got an obligation to say something to your friend, who thinks you’re their friend,” Sean said.

    Cayden’s parking spot at Centreville High School has been retired, so nobody else can park there. Last year, students painted on it. The Fosters placed a binder there with Cayden’s story inside, as one last reminder.

    “We just try to speak to as many students and adults — so that they can speak to their children — as we can,” Afrodita said. “That’s the only thing we can do.”

    In Part 3 of WTOP’s “Fighting Fentanyl” series, schools and community groups warn about emerging substances. 

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Scott Gelman

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  • Opioid overdoses are declining across the DC region. What’s behind the trend? – WTOP News

    Overdoses among young people appear to be falling across the D.C. region since schools tackled the issue with education and Narcan training, according to a WTOP analysis of local data.

    This story is Part 1 of WTOP’s four-part series, “Fighting Fentanyl” which explores how the drug is impacting students, families and schools in the D.C. area.

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    Opioid overdoses are declining across DC region. What’s behind the trend?

    It’s been over two years since a large group gathered outside Wakefield High School holding colorful signs.

    They had messages in both English and Spanish, hoping to show support to students at the Arlington, Virginia, school. Some hoped for increased security and new rules. The event came days after Sergio Flores, a student at the school, was suspected to have overdosed in a school bathroom in early 2023. He later died.

    The incident prompted Arlington Public Schools leaders to change their approach in response to a troubling rise in youth overdoses. They allowed students to carry Narcan, the opioid overdose reversal medication, and emphasized to students just how dangerous substance use can be.

    It’s been a few years since school districts across the D.C. region started hosting community meetings, having teachers and other staff trained in how to administer Narcan, and educating students about the dangers of opioids and other drugs at a younger age. Now, overdoses among young people appear to be falling, according to a WTOP analysis of local data.

    “The global altitude of this crisis has really affected so many people that students in our classrooms are going to know somebody who’s been affected by the opioid crisis,” said Jenny Sexton, a substance abuse counselor in Arlington Public Schools. “So helping them understand the data and how that connects them to the reality of this happening right in their hometown.”

    That approach has produced positive results. There were 11 juvenile overdoses, two of which were fatal, in Arlington in 2023, according to police data. There were two overdoses overall, both nonfatal, last year. As of this summer, there haven’t been any in 2025.

    Staff members in Arlington are trained on administering naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication, and students hear about substances as young as third grade. The division hosts community presentations and distributed Narcan to parents in drop-off lines twice last year at high schools.

    The biggest challenge, Sexton said, was getting people not to fear Narcan.

    “The initial concern was causing harm to someone,” Sexton said. “‘What if I hurt somebody by giving it to them?’ Or what if it doesn’t work? Am I liable for that?’”

    Nearby Fairfax County is reporting similarly positive trends. There weren’t any fatal overdoses among kids 17 and younger last year, down from five in 2023. There weren’t any overdoses that occurred during school hours or school-sanctioned activities last year either, compared to six during what the district considered its peak year.

    However, it remains a challenge. In a message to families last week, superintendent Michelle Reid said a student in the West Springfield community died of an overdose outside of school.

    “It’s still a problem, in the sense that there are still youth who use fentanyl, and fentanyl continues to be the primary opioid responsible for fatal and nonfatal overdoses in Fairfax County,” said Michael Axler, Fairfax County Public Schools’ director of intervention and prevention services. “However, holistically, we’re definitely seeing that fewer youth are being impacted by fentanyl, certainly in the calendar year 2024 compared to 2023.”

    Virginia’s largest school district keeps naloxone in every school, AED cabinet and clinic, and Axler said there are expanded treatment options for young people. All staff, including athletic coaches and trainers and security personnel, are trained to administer naloxone, and school leaders helped parents learn how to talk to their kids about the sensitive issue.

    “We always have to remember that we’re dealing with people, and so if we say we’ve reduced it by 30%, there’s still a percentage who are being affected by it,” Axler said.

    Meanwhile, it’s been over two years since a cluster of suspected overdoses involving Loudoun County Public Schools students prompted Gov. Glenn Youngkin to issue an executive order on the subject. The move outlined a time requirement for school systems to notify parents of a suspected overdose.

    In 2023, there were 22 juvenile overdoses in the county, according to sheriff’s department data. In 2024, there were six. So far this year, there have been two, including one fatal overdose.

    In Loudoun, students hear from families who have lost loved ones to an overdose. All staff are trained to administer Naloxone, and students can carry it with a parent’s permission. The district boosted the number of student assistant specialists, who have an expertise in substance use and assessment, and boosted parent engagement.

    “It was coming in here manufactured, and kids weren’t realizing what they were getting,” said Jennifer Evans, Loudoun County schools’ director of student mental health services. “And I do think the pharmaceutical companies have a role in that, and what they were prescribing, or how much they’re prescribing, and families have a role in that, locking up medication so kids can’t get to it. So there’s so many layers to that, but I do think there was a lack of information about fentanyl out there.”

    In D.C., there have been 276 deadly overdoses among all ages in the last 12 months, compared to 479 in the previous 12, according to data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

    Ginny Atwood, co-founder of the Fairfax-based Chris Atwood Foundation, said naloxone becoming available over the counter and improved access to treatment for opioid-use disorder have likely helped contribute to the declines.

    “A lot of times if somebody revives a friend, they’re not going to the state to report the overdose reversal. So we really, truly don’t have a very good idea of how many people are surviving overdoses behind closed doors,” Atwood said.

    “It’s still a problem,” Atwood said. “It’s still something we should be talking about.”

    In Part 2 of WTOP’s “Fighting Fentanyl” series, a couple from Fairfax County speaks out after losing their son to an overdose.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Scott Gelman

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