Young students at a private school in brownstone Brooklyn found a brightly colored capsule filled with a powder believed to be fentanyl while playing at a neighborhood park, The Post has learned.
Pupils at the Brooklyn Waldorf School in Bedford-Stuyvesant made the potentially fatal find during a routine class visit to nearby Crispus Attucks Playground on Wednesday.
Parents were notified of the incident in an email later shared on social media among concerned families in the trendy neighborhood. The circulated message included a reference picture of the tiny eye-catching containers, which are known as “trash cans” and commonly used for fentanyl, an opioid that’s 100 times more potent than morphine.
“First please know that all the kids are safe and well!” reads the message obtained Friday by The Post. “Our teachers handled the situation beautifully and in an age appropriate way.
“We reminded the children of the class rule that we only pick up things made by nature and in particular some things that aren’t made by nature like these ‘little trash cans’ can have poison on them and children should never touch them, only report them to grown ups right away,” the notice continued.
Cops in the northwestern US first detected fentanyl mixtures in so-called “trash cans” in 2019. They are especially dangerous to children since they can easily be mistaken for a colorful treat.
“The newness of the packaging is attractive. It’s distinctive. And like any other product, selling drugs is in many ways about marketing,” Drug Enforcement Administration officials warned the public in 2021 as the trend escalated.
In December 2022, the 10-month-old son of a California tech titan overdosed and nearly perished after somehow ingesting fentanyl while playing in a San Francisco Park.
Last month, a 21-month-old boy died after being exposed to fentanyl at his Bronx daycare. Three other children were sickened.
In a statement to The Post, Christina Pantazis-Blades, the head of Brooklyn Waldorf School, noted that “parents of the students were notified on the same day of the incident” and “as a community organization that has been here for more than fifteen years, we are always mindful of our surroundings and keep in regular contact with law enforcement and other city agencies.”
The dangerous find was not reported to police Wednesday, an NYPD spokesperson told The Post.
“We are not able to comment on the details of specific conversations but we do work regularly with law enforcement and other agencies in our neighborhood,” she said in a statement.
Officials from the NYPD and city’s Department of Parks & Recreation said they were looking into the incident when reached Friday by The Post.
Brooklyn Waldorf serves students in preschool through eighth grade. Tuition at the school runs as high as $41,950.
The message sent to Brooklyn Waldorf parents noted that similar “trash cans” had been spotted at various local playgrounds and urged vigilance.
“Please reinforce that these are not safe objects with the children!” it concluded. “Stay safe, urban parents!”
