HURON EMERY THE

ELIOT DIMCHEFF COPY EDITOR

Moose Gultekin approached the Ann Arbor Public Schools’ board of education with trepidation, intent on broaching a deeply important topic. Gultekin stood in a room full of older, unfamiliar faces, save for a few friends that had come along to support them. Overcoming their nerves, Gultekin began to speak.

“There has been a lot of talking about overdosing,” Gultekin said at their Feb. 8 public address.

“I actually have a couple of questions for the audience.”

By show of hands, the attend- ees demonstrated varying levels of familiarity with the life saving drug Narcan (naloxone). Most knew what it was, few knew how to use it, and even fewer carried it with them.

Gultekin then sprang into the rest of their address.

“It was a surreal experience,” Gultekin said. “I was going up there like, ‘this is gonna be weird.’I remember seeing a lot of heads nodding and hearing a lot of clapping at the end.”

Gultekin, a Community High School student, was asking the board about the presence of Narcan (naloxone) nasal spray in school buildings.

They had recently discovered that students and staff in AAPS buildings were not provided naloxone, a life-sav- ing drug used to stop opioid overdoses, by the district.

“That made me really stressed, mostly because I think Narcan is like another life saving device like an AED or an EpiPen,” Gultekin said. “Everyone should have access to it at any time it’s needed.”

While Superintendent Jeanice Swift did not respond to requests for an interview, AAPS Director of Communications Andrew Cluley provided a copy of the original March 10 community bulletin.

“With the health and wellbeing of students, staff, and visitors continuing as a top priority, Ann Arbor Public Schools is currently taking the necessary steps to have the rescue medication Naloxone in our school

WEBSITE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

On April 12, Ann Arbor Public Schools held one of their weekly School Board Meetings, where the board discusses important issues and changes in the district. Following public commentary, the two main points of discussion were the Summer Learning and Enrichment program and the Superintendent’s update.

The board announced the three summer school programs for the summer of 2023. The three programs include the Special Education Programs, English Learner Programs, and the Summer Music Program.

Each of the different programs have different opportunities and camps that have been specialized for different students’ needs.

Additionally, the Superintendent Jeanice Swift took time to give her own updates. Some of the up- dates included new information on support for childcare and standardized testing.

Regarding childcare, the district added two additional programs, which is a 50 percent increase. There are also new job postings for childcare help.

“For folks who want to lend a hand we would ask you to take our job posting and put it out on your networks,” Swift said. “Working in service to our children, I can’t think of a better job.” buildings,” the bulletin read.

Fatal opioid overdoses in Washtenaw County increased by 28 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to the bulletin.

Naloxone knocks opioid agonist (initiating a physiological reaction) molecules off of opioid receptors in the brain and inhibits the effects of those drugs. This quickly reverses reduced heart rate and respiration - side effects that can make opioid overdose fatal.

“Just as CPR, AED devices and EPI pens are used in times of medical emergency, naloxone will be administered by trained AAPS staff according to medical protocols,” the bulletin said.

A broken system : Why are the wrong people behind bars?

ANNABELLE YE, JULIANNE CUCOS, AND SAMARA JIHAD

DESIGN EDITOR AND STAFF WRITERS

20,000. That’s how many people are estimated to be innocent in the United States prison population in a study done by the Innocence Project. That’s 20,000 people wrongfully stripped away from their loved ones, 20,000 people wrongfully denied the right to vote, 20,000 people behind bars, serving someone else’s sentence.

According to a study done by the University of Michigan Law School, Black

Americans make up around 53 percent of known wrongful convictions, despite representing only 13.6 percent of the American population. Additionally, the National Registry of Exonerations reported that, “Innocent Black people are about seven-and-a-half times more likely to be convicted of murder than innocent white people.” But, why?

The answer lies in this country’s centuries of systemic racism. “What we have done to Black people in this country is deny them the protocols,” the bulletin said.

In an email sent to Emery Staff on April 10, Jenna Bacalor, the Executive Director of Student and School Health and Community Division confirmed that all AAPS high schools have access to Narcan, and that eventually all AAPS buildings will have it.

“The lead school nurse, Keely Hoffman, is training members of building Medical Emergency Response Teams (MERT). Getting to all of the different MERT teams takes time, but I know they’re working diligently,” Bacalor wrote.

The MERT will play an important role in overdose treatment with naloxone.

“Each school is forming this group of first responders to respond to a medical emergency. Everybody that is on that team is being trained,” Burdick said. “We have I think [nine] people on our team.”

Cluley said that the source of the naloxone, which is being provided for free, was the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

At Huron’s clinic, there are four boxes of Narcan. Within each box there are two doses.

“We are in the middle of a huge spike of opioid overdoses,” Huron High School Nurse Ann Burdick said. “ And they’re accidental because meds are being spiked with them.”

Drug overdose rates have risen substantially, but uniformly, across

TRANQ DOPE most substances, including psychostimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine, benzodiazepines, prescription opioids, and heroin over the last twenty years. What stands out is a sharp spike, beginning around 2015, in deaths related to synthetic opioids (excluding methadone), primarily fentanyl.

“Just such a tiny amount, they say it’s a small enough amount to be on the eraser of a pencil, can kill somebody. If you’re not getting it [drugs] from an established place, that you know the ingredients, don’t do it.”

Fentanyl, sometimes called phentanyl or fentanil, is a synthetic opioid up to 100 times as potent as morphine. A fentanyl high can be achieved by taking just micrograms of the drug. An appropriately measured dose of fentanyl might be indistinguishable from heroin, but too much can easily be fatal. Because of this, fentanyl is often cut - used as an additive or substitute - into other drugs and then passed off as pure. According to the Drug En- forcement Agency, fentanyl is the leading cause of death in Americans under 50. The CDC recorded over 100,000 overdose deaths in 2022, the majority of which involved synthetic opioids. Burdick and Gultekin both agree Narcan in schools is a step in the right direction.

“I think God bless us,” Burdick said. “But I just think, hey, just even the potential to save somebody, it’s worth it and you know, it is such an epidemic.”

Gultekin, hopeful, has been taking steps of their own to promote a safe school environment.

“I’ve been working with a bunch of teachers and some of my friends to see how many people we can get at [Community] to carry Narcan. There’s a lot of support for it,” Gultekin said. “I’ve found more and more people willing to carry it, and more and more people have been like ‘oh, I carry Narcan in my bag now’ and I’m like, ‘that’s awesome, we should all be doing that.’”

OUT OF 53 SAMPLES (TAKEN BETWEEN JAN. 10 AND APR. 19, 2023 ON DRUGSDATA. ORG) OF DRUGS SOLD AS HEROIN/DOPE, 46 CONTAINED FENTANYL AND 21 CONTAINED XYLAZINE. GRAPHIC BY SANDRA FU

SYSTEM| FROM PAGE ONE opportunity to accumulate wealth,” Eli Savit, the prosecuting attorney of Washtenaw County, said. “It started with slavery, then redlining — which prevented black families from purchasing homes, the number one way that you accumulate wealth.”

Today, roughly 100 years after the start of redlining, 41 percent of Black Americans own homes, while 73 percent of white Americans are homeowners, according to the Equal Justice Initiative.

With expensive defense attorneys and pricey expert witnesses, the more money one has, the less likely they are to fall victim to a wrongful conviction. Savit also noted that there is “implicit and explicit bias in our justice system,” which is another contributing factor to the racial inequities in the US justice system. According to the National Library of Medicine, “Black and Hispanic defendants received longer ju - dicial sentences than White defendants,” after crime severity was accounted for.

Fentanyl presents extreme risk to those who take drugs recreationally, especially opioid users. The National Institute on Drug Abuse also notes that the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine “is often added to illicit opioids, including fentanyl, and people report using xylazine-containing fentanyl to lengthen its euphoric effects.” Just like fentanyl, xylazine may be added to other drugs without the knowledge of the user. Xylazine is not an opioid and overdose cannot be reversed by naloxone administration.

“Of course the people who have been historically discriminated against and denied the opportunity to accumulate wealth are disproportionately affected,” Savit said. “But it’s not just about wealth gaps. It’s also about the biases that people have that we see on juries.”

As Washtenaw County’s prosecuting attorney, addressing the injustices of wrongful convictions is at the top of Savit’s list of priorities.

“The consequences of it are just so draconian, so severe and so categorically unjust,” Savit said. “I think that a wrongful conviction that sends somebody to prison is not just the worst mistake that a prosecutor can make, it’s the worst mistake that the government can make because all of us only get one chance at life.”

To many, including Savit, the fundamental problem of the US justice system lies in its purpose: punishment.

“We have for far too long seen punishment, as well as long lasting stigma, as being the way to address a whole host of societal problems that could be better addressed,” Savit said. “A criminal conviction is something that stays on your record for, in most cases, the rest of your life, and we’ve set up all these systems that prevent you from getting jobs, from getting housing, from getting educational opportunities, and that ultimately don’t get people back on the right track.”

To Huron High School junior Fonsea Bagchi, these same issues have made detrimental impacts on the youth population, inspiring him to become a board member of the Michigan Center for Youth Justice.

“The justice system is about punishing youth instead of helping youth,” Bagchi said. “It’s designed to put you in prison and then keep you in prison after you turn 18. This means you’re charged as an adult, instead of providing opportunities to reform and go on to lead a productive and healthy life.”

Bagchi believes that the young generation holds the power to help, not just through voting but through a necessary change in mindset. “Knowing about these problems is the biggest thing,” Bagchi said. “Voting is huge, but it’s important [that] people are understanding and caring about these issues so they’re

For help and other resources, scan the QR code above not ignorant and spreading false information about these people who are being charged.”

Although Bagchi stated that federal laws continue to perpetuate these problems outside of the control of local authorities, the tenacious fight of many local politicians keeps him hopeful. Bagchi stated that Savit is one of them, with his campaign built on “fighting against wrong and bad policy, but also restorative justice as a whole.”

For Savit, this restorative justice is focused on new opportunities.

“That lack of resources for people is really the number one barrier that dampens our ability to make systemic change,” Savit said. “If we’re really going to do things right, we need to be focused on rehabilitation and giving people an opportunity to avoid that record that’s going to send them back.”

Proof beyond reasonable doubt; innocent before proven guilty — rights protected by the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Yet, the United States prison system continues to house the innocent. “This is the criminal legal system we’re talking about,” Savit said. “The system that can deny somebody their freedom.”

Traveling to Grand Rapids, Huron students represented the River Rats by crushing the competition, and showing their strengths through their knowledge of business, programming, speech, financial and economic systems, and more, all while having some fun around the city. From March 9 to March 12, Business Professionals of America (BPA) competed against the foremost competitors from all across Michigan in the BPA statewide event.

“It was amazing,” senior Varshini Kashyap, secretary of our school’s BPA club, said, “It was a lot of fun, and we saw a lot of success. We took over 50 people to states and around 15 people qualified for nationals, which is really exciting.”

Their excellent performance was spread around a wide variety of small, separate events.

“Everyone did their assigned event at a different time, throughout the three days,” Kashyap said, “I did the Small Business Management Team. We had to give a presentation about how to help a small business succeed because it was having problems. We did some research beforehand, and practiced the presentation a lot.”

Her team came in first place for this event.

The group’s trip, of course, was not without its memorable moments beyond the events. “We were able to leave the hotel, and it