Emotions Run High Between School Official, Task Force Over Heroin Abuse Fight

Foxborough, MA — Emotions ran high Monday night as the school committee discussed the town’s opioid task force and the existence of heroin inside the Foxborough Public Schools.

While updating the community on the task force and what the schools are doing to address drug abuse, Superintendent Debra Spinelli defended the school district amid accusations that heroin was in the school and the district wasn’t moving fast enough to address the epidemic.

“It’s nothing something that needs six months to do. It needs to be done quickly. We’re going to start losing kids, it’s going to happen if we don’t become proactive,” resident and addiction activist Kris Perry Long told the committee.

Earlier in the meeting, Long criticized the high school for the handling of student that was discovered to be a heroin addict.

“You had a child graduate with no support system,” Long said.

Spinelli said she was not aware of the student’s heroin addiction until the parents informed the school that she was being placed in rehab program

“We can only deal with what we know about. We had no cases until the case you mentioned was brought to our attention by the parent. I’m uncomfortable talking about a single case. That’s a child,” Spinelli replied.

The superintendent also took exception to accusations from Selectman Jim DeVellis that another family had no support from the school and the talking point that heroin was already here and it was inside the schools.

According to Spinelli, the Foxborough Police Department has not investigated a case of heroin use by a teenager, with the cases mostly involving users in their 20s and 30s.

“We have never found heroin in the high school, we have never had police come and arrest someone in the high school. That’s why I keep saying we don’t know what we don’t know. When you say there is heroin in high school, people think it’s in the lockers and being dealt out,” Spinelli said.

“This is coming from the mother of the student,” DeVellis replied.

“We have our student resource officer investigate every tip and rumor. If people have something that needs to be investigated, please bring it forward but don’t tell us it’s happened when you don’t tell us to investigate,” Spinelli said.

Spinelli said the school district and task force will continue to gather information to help decide the best way to move forward in September.