Advertisement As the 500 students settled onto bleachers, Milton Police Chief Jerry Schuetz launched into the un-middle school-like topic of heroin use among classmates.
It’s been that kind of spring in Milton, a city of about 5,670 people 35 miles southeast of Madison. First, swine flu closed the high school. Then, on May 16, three Milton Middle School boys, all eighth-graders, overdosed on heroin. All three recovered.
As if the overdoses themselves weren’t shocking enough, the details have stunned people.
One of the boys allegedly stole the heroin, in powder form, from the bedroom of the mother of one of the other boys, according to police. After snorting the heroin, the boys started vomiting at a local park and one passed out.
A fourth teenager who happened to be at the park recognized the signs of heroin overdose and called a 20-year-old man known around town as a local heroin user, police said. The man, who was not far away at a laundromat, assessed the situation, then saved the life of the most seriously ill boy by injecting him with Narcan, a drug that counteracts the effects of a heroin overdose.
"Think about that," said Tim Schigur, the middle school principal. "They know enough to call someone who’s a local user to come save their friend’s life. It’s amazing we live in a world that has that kind of skill set."
The police department, working with school officials, decided to attack the problem aggressively with the assembly.
"This is an attempt to scare them," Lt. John Conger said prior to the assembly. "Three of their friends damn near died."
’An epidemic’
In the last year, heroin use in Rock County has become "an epidemic," with 11 deaths in 13 months, Conger said. Heroin killed 14 people in Dane County last year, up from eight in 2007.
At Friday’s assembly, Schuetz told students they could die from their first heroin use. He urged them to have a game plan for rejecting peer pressure. "Say, ’No, I have too many reasons to live.’"
In the audience were two of the three boys who had overdosed. One of them giggled throughout the 20-minute assembly, disappointing faculty members. The third boy has skipped town with his mother, who could face charges as the alleged owner of the heroin, Schuetz said.
During a question-and-answer period, one girl asked what heroin looks like. Schuetz said it can be a white powder that’s snorted or smoked or a clear liquid that’s injected with a needle. (Schuetz later said he struggled with how explicit to get with children.)
Another student asked, "Why don’t people just eat it?" Schuetz said heroin would seriously impact a person’s digestive system.
As the students dispersed, several swarmed around Schuetz, including one girl who told him she was embarrassed because her brother was one of the three who had overdosed.
’Such big problems’
Seventh-grader Megan Martin, 13, said everyone around her listened intently during the assembly. "I just thought we were a little small town," she said. "I didn’t know we had such big problems."
Another seventh-grader, Ben Lima, 13, said he really didn’t know what heroin was and that the assembly helped him realize its dangers.
Schuetz said the boys who overdosed apparently didn’t know much about heroin, either. One told an officer that he thought they were snorting cocaine.
The investigation into the incident continues, with one of the boys possibly facing charges for allegedly stealing the heroin and distributing it to the others.
Schuetz said he has decided not to seek charges against the 20-year-old man, even though he administered a drug (Narcan) without a license. "We really do feel he saved the boy’s life."
On the other hand, there probably won’t be a police commendation, either, he said.
