Loudoun County will begin sweeping high schools with drug-sniffing dogs in a new effort to fight a rising number of youth overdoses both on school grounds and in the community. Across the region, opioid overdoses among teens have drastically increased in recent years, fueled primarily by fentanyl, the highly potent and deadly synthetic opioid. As a part of its response, Loudoun County Public Schools announced Monday that the district will partner with the county sheriff's office and Leesburg police to start randomly searching the county's 18 high school buildings with police dogs. The scans will begin sometime in March and last through the spring. The dogs can be used to search school property, like hallways and lockers, but cannot be used to search students.

Source: Washington Post February 28, 2024 02:15 UTC