Police are reportedly investigating whether drug overdoses caused some of the nine student deaths that have happened at the University of Southern California this semester, prompting concern and speculation from members of the campus community.
University President Carol L. Folt told the Los Angeles Times that USC officials are collaborating with Los Angeles police and increasing their focus on drug-abuse education. Investigators are looking into whether any of the student deaths were caused by tainted drugs, but no connection has been confirmed, the Times reported.
Drug and alcohol overdoses pushed up death rates for Americans by 8 percent between 2010 and 2015, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioids claimed the lives of 4,173 people under 25 in the United States in 2017, up from 2,255 people a decade earlier, data from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows.
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The result has been an increase in drug- and alcohol-recovery programs at colleges across the country, according to the Hechinger Report. Still, fewer than 5 percent of colleges have this type of resource, the news organization reported.
USC officials told the Times that four to 15 students die in an average academic year at the school of 47,500 students, and that six student deaths occurred last year. Three of the nine student deaths since late August have been attributed to suicide, but Folt wrote on Saturday in a letter to the university community that most cases have not been ruled suicides.
“These tragic losses have resulted from a number of different causes,” according to a copy of the letter shared by USC Annenberg Media. “In some cases the cause of death is still undetermined, and in others the loved ones do not want details disclosed.”
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USC officials warned the campus community Tuesday about the dangers of drug abuse, the risks of mixing drugs and alcohol, and an increase in contaminated drugs, according to another letter. The administrators noted that a psychiatric practice would open Monday in the student health center to offer additional mental health care to supplement the university’s current counseling services.
The most recent student death at USC occurred Monday, when an incident log from the university’s public safety department says a student was found dead in an off-campus apartment. The first death of the academic year came Aug. 24, when an 18-year-old incoming freshman was hit by two cars while walking on a freeway.
Share this articleShareStudents have demanded more information from the university, while campus officials say they are seeking to keep the community informed without implying they have more information than they truly do, the Daily Trojan student newspaper reported. The university’s chief health officer, Sarah Van Orman, told the Daily Trojan that officials are trying to keep relevant people aware of new developments without spreading details of the deaths too widely.
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“Students are pleading for answers from the university,” Natalie Bettendorf, managing editor of the Daily Trojan, told the Associated Press. “There’s a sense of desperation from within the student body. There have been too many deaths and not enough answers.”
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