Special report

Nice kids. Good Schools. Hard drugs

Posted

This is the first part in a special series on heroin and opioid use among teens in Riverdale. Read the second part here

In the summer of 2014, a mother at the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy (RKA) told fellow parent “Jennifer” that she was pulling her child out of the school because she had learned of prevalent drug use among students, with some of them even doing heroin.

“I almost didn’t believe it,” recalled Jennifer, who does not want her real name to be used due to the sensitive matter of her story. “Not that this woman would be lying, but you know, sometimes people blow things out of proportion.”

Jennifer said she did not know the woman very well, and while she did not dismiss the warning outright, she found it hard to believe that a good high school in Riverdale, of all places, would have a heroin problem.

Jennifer’s son “Tyler” was going to be a junior at RKA in the fall of 2014. He was taking honors math and was a prolific artist. Jennifer is a single mother, and she and Tyler were very close.

“Who would think that — I mean, you don’t think that,” she said in an interview in her Riverdale apartment. “I confronted my son about it and he just kind of laughed at me.”

“But I guess at that point I probably should have taken more steps,” she continued. “I think I let too many things go that seemed insignificant to me or someone blowing something up out of proportion, but after all is said and done, I realized that they were right.”

As the months went by, the problem gradually hit home.

During the summer of 2014, Jennifer started to notice that Tyler, who declined to be interviewed for this article, became more introverted and was spending more time in his room. At the time, she did not think much of the change. Teenagers get moody, and Tyler had a bad relationship with his father. Jennifer was dealing with depression herself.

Then, the first progress report of his junior year brought failing grades in two to three classes, according to the mother.

“He never did that before,” she remarked.

She also noticed her son picking at his skin — a lot. She later learned that kind of behavior is a symptom of opiate use. Jennifer said in October, the RKA administration called her to say the school believed her son was using drugs.

Heroin, teen drug use, opiates, opioids, naloxone, Robert Morrow, Riverdale, Arms Acres, Donnie Joseph, Isabel Angell
Page 1 / 8