Brockton school police report sealed bag testing positive for fentanyl at high school; building searched

Lieutenant Banaca, the school safety liaison, briefed the committee on a September 29 incident at Brockton High School in which a sealed bag containing a white powder tested positive for fentanyl.

Banaca said staff turned the sealed bag over to school police and that the item remained enclosed while it was field-tested in cooperation with the Brockton Police Department. "They tested positive for fentanyl, which is very disturbing," Banaca said, adding that two staff members who handled the bag properly were decontaminated and reported no adverse effects.

The room was evacuated and quarantined until a contracted biohazard-cleaning team sanitized the space. Banaca said he arranged for four narcotics-detection K-9 units to sweep the entire school; no other suspicious items were located. Interviews and camera reviews are ongoing; there are no classroom cameras and additional interviews are planned.

As an interim safety step, Banaca said the district conducted backpack checks at entry doors with school police present, instituted random spot checks in hallways and study halls (authorized in the student handbook), and sent notifications to parents and guardians. He also noted the district's monitoring software (Gaggle) flags potentially harmful content on school-provided devices and that flagged incidents and reported threats were investigated with consent searches and parent notification.

Committee members expressed alarm and urged parents to discuss safety with students; the vice chair suggested pursuing a dedicated K-9 drug-detection capability for the school police in the future.