Fentanyl found at West Greene High School
GREENE COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Fentanyl was found inside West Greene High School, according to school officials.
Principal Dennis Wilds says a janitor was cleaning the girls’ bathroom one morning last week and found a white powdery substance. Law enforcement tested it and found out it was positive for fentanyl.
“We immediately shut down the bathroom, contacted the sheriff’s department, and contacted the director of schools,” Wilds said. “We cleaned the entire bathroom thoroughly and we started investigating immediately.”
School resource officer Chad Moore says the situation is under investigation by the Greene County Sheriff’s Department and that officials made sure that no residue was left in the bathroom.
“Right after the incident occurred, we had drug dogs coming in that very day,” Moore said. “That’s going to be another repeated act to kind of deter and also just see what we can find to make sure we’re keeping that out of the school.”
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Wilds told News Channel 11 that this is the first time West Greene has experienced fentanyl in the school and they will be working with staff, parents, and students to educate them on the dangers of drugs like fentanyl.
“Any time something like this happens, we use it as an opportunity to learn, we reflect on the situation,” Wilds said. “We think about what practices and current practices we have in place, and we start thinking about what can we do to improve.”
Moore says the school has also added more staff to monitor the bathrooms to prevent this from happening again. He added that all administrators carry Naloxone, the opioid reversal drug, in case of an emergency.
“We’re just trying to narrow things down keep an eye out,” Moore said. “Hopefully our diligence is going to pay off and we’ll be able to stay on top of the situation and deter it.”
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