EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Unified School District’s new Superintendent Alberto Carvalho laid out his top priorities for the coming years: Leveraging pandemic funding, increasing school attendance, boosting instructional time, expanding tutoring opportunities and closing the digital divide.

Absent from that list is helping end the fentanyl crisis in schools. But, while the superintendent isn’t naming that a priority, he’s still working on fixing the issue. 

In November, Carvalho, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office announced a task force aimed at ending the fentanyl crisis. Back in 2020, educators could barely imagine contending with a pandemic and now they also have to battle an ongoing opioid crisis that’s killing young children. Since June, at least 12 students within LAUSD have been directly affected by fentanyl. This led the district to make naloxone, or Narcan, available to all K-12 schools. Naloxone is a medication used to treat individuals experiencing an overdose. This is the heartbreaking reality for the second largest school district in the U.S., one that’s also dealing with a homelessness crisis and a rise in COVID-19 cases. 

Alberto Carvalho joined “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to discuss it all.

“It’s not a role you ever wish for, but it’s a reality today,” Carvalho said.

A Mercury News analysis of preliminary data from the California Department of Vital Statistics found that fentanyl was responsible for one in five deaths among 15 to 24-year-olds in California in 2021. But, Carvalho adds that it’s not just high school students who are being affected by this crisis, it’s also affecting elementary and middle schoolers.

“No child should die on our streets or in our schools as a result of contact with fentanyl,” he said.

Since September, LAUSD has saved at least seven lives in schools as a result of using Narcan that was provided by the school district. While many applaud this approach, some say the bigger issue is tackling students’ mental health.

Carvalho said the school district is investing more in social workers, psychologists and school counselors to try to “reverse the reality” that mental health is the biggest threat to our children.

“Suicidal ideation is up, depression is up, obesity is up… all kinds of conditions that young kids should not be facing,” Carvalho said, adding that the district will need support from community-based organizations and parents, who will need to be trained to learn what the early stages of a mental health decline looks like.

While issues of mental health have become more important in recent years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, issues like homelessness have affected this city since before Carvalho became superintendent.  

Carvalho was a supporter of Los Angeles ordinance 41.18, which makes it unlawful to obstruct a street, sidewalk or other public right-of-way. That includes sitting, lying or sleeping and storing items of property within 500 feet of schools.

“It’s not a simple solution,” Carvalho said about what can be done to fix our homelessness crisis. “I’ve lived the experience.”

The superintendent is referring to when he was homeless at 18.

“For many months, I slept on the streets,” Carvalho said. “I know what it feels like to have the harsh, cold concrete as your mattress and the sky above as your blanket.”

Carvalho said he empathizes with those living on the streets, but that he has a professional and moral responsibility to act in the interest of the children under his care. The superintendent said he’s had conversations with parents about unsanitary and unsafe conditions. He recalls watching an unclothed man walk across the street at a nearby school. These events, Carvalho said, can have a psychological impact on students, especially younger ones who can’t comprehend what’s happening on our streets.

“We have a responsibility to protect our kids,” a theme that seems to be at the center of Carvalho’s mission as the new LAUSD superintendent.

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