2nd High School Overdose Death Prompts Call For 'Emergency Session'

ARLINGTON, VA — The NAACP Arlington Branch is calling on the Arlington County Board and Arlington Public Schools to hold an "emergency session on the opioid crisis" after reports of another Wakefield High School student dying of a suspected opioid overdose.

Together with League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Arlington Council, the NAACP is demanding that the county and its schools provide mental health services to students and provide students with access to addiction, treatment and prevention programs.

"As two of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organizations, and on behalf of the thousands of residents of color we represent, we demand action," the groups said in a joint statement.

In the latest overdose death, when paramedics arrived at an apartment complex on Columbia Pike on the evening of Sept. 21, Wakefield High School freshman Jorge Chavarria Rodíguez, 16, had already died, according to reports.

Jorge’s mother, Luz Rodriguez, said in an interview with WUSA9 that police told her he “likely overdosed from fentanyl, but that they had to wait on the result of his autopsy.”

In late January, a teen boy was found unconscious in a Wakefield High School bathroom after an apparent overdose. The boy died a few days later.

“We are devastated to lose another Latino student due to an opioid overdose,” the NAACP Branch and LULAC Arlington Council said. “We send our most sincere condolences to the family, the loved ones, and to the entire Wakefield Community.”

The groups said Arlington is “facing an urgent crisis that demands immediate, powerful and lasting action from Arlington County Government and our leaders.”

“Our kids have no trusted safe space in our community,” Mike Hemminger, president of the NAACP Arlington Branch, said in a statement. “They are roaming the streets, being harassed and pressured into drugs because there’s nothing to do.”

Among the groups' demands is for Arlington County and Arlington Public Schools to work together to commit to funding a full-service teen center in the county.

The groups said community leaders have called on Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz "to establish a meeting to no avail."

"Government agencies, healthcare providers, civic organizations and other community stakeholders must begin to receive the proper resources, funding, and information to combat the deadly crisis effectively," Christopher Concepcion, president of the Arlington Council of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said in a statement.

Arlington County's Public Health department recommends that every family with school age children have naloxone, a nasal spray that treats opioid overdoses, at home. Community members can obtain free naloxone through the mail by completing an online request form or by attending a training in English or Spanish.

RELATED: Student Who Reportedly Overdosed At Arlington's Wakefield High Dies