Teen Girl Dies In School Bathroom, 3 Hospitalized For Drug Overdose On Fentanyl-laced Pills

A teenage girl attending Bernstein High School in Hollywood, Los Angeles, died after she and three other teens overdosed on what officials believed were fentanyl-laced pills, authorities said Wednesday. The overdose incidents took place in two different locations, one being the girls' restroom at the school.

Officers responded to Bernstein High School at around 9 p.m. Tuesday "for an overdose investigation," the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Hollywood division said in a press release.

The press release noted that a parent found his "missing stepdaughter," who "appeared to be a victim of an overdose," at the school.

The student told her parent that her friend was in the girls' restroom. The parent and a school staff member entered the restroom and "found an apparent overdose victim who was unresponsive," the press release noted.

The parent administered first aid as directed by 911, but after the Los Angeles Fire Department team arrived, the 15-year-old girl was declared dead at the scene. The other student who sought help for her friend was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition, officials said.

According to investigators, the two students purchased "what they believed was Percocet pills from Lexington Park," located in the 5500 block of Lexington Avenue in Hollywood.

Officials further revealed that the students purchased the pills earlier in the day and felt ill when they took them.

"Fentanyl is of course very dangerous and deadly to all people," Lieutenant John Radtke of the LAPD told local KNBC. The LAPD has warned that some drug distributors sell pills laced with fentanyl.

Also on Tuesday, LAPD officers responded to "two additional calls of overdoses in the area of Lexington Park." The said overdoses were also teen students, the Los Angeles Times reported. The two teenagers were also transported to the hospital.

Log Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the two girls from Bernstein were aged 15, while the third girl was 17 and went to Hollywood High School. Carvalho said he did not have further information on the fourth student.

Carvalho told the outlet that the series of overdoses pointed to one distributor, who had been selling drugs at Lexington Park, adding that the police were "fairly close" to identifying the distributor in question.