VIRGINIA BEACH (WAVY) – In June, Ijonae Swain had her name on a Green Run High School diploma.
Two weeks later, it was on a death certificate.
She died at a home in Kempsville.
“Someone in the household gave her a Xanax bar,” her mother, Tatum Swain said Friday morning, describing a larger pill that can be broken into smaller sections. “Unfortunately it happened to be laced with fentanyl.”
But Tatum Swain didn’t find out about her daughter until six hours later.
“The individuals in the household decided they weren’t gonna tell the detective who my daughter was. They were trying to protect themselves,” Swain said, despite Virginia’s “Good Samaritan Law” that shields people from drug prosecutions when they summon emergency help for someone who is in jeopardy of a fatal overdose.
And about a week after losing Ijonae, Swain says “one of her other friends passed away from the same thing.”
Ijonae had just graduated from Green Run, and Swain said school officials came to her daughter’s funeral.
“They’ve been extremely supportive,” Swain said. “They showed up, they contacted me, anything I needed, they gave me.”
Virginia Beach City Public Schools issued this statement:
“We are absolutely heartbroken for these students and their families, and our thoughts and prayers are with them and with our school community. We know schools are reflections of their communities and the fentanyl crisis is something we must address together—it’s incumbent upon all of us to teach children about the dangers of drug use and about this issue that is impacting young people nationwide.“
Swain is a nurse at CHKD, and she’s accustomed to seeing young people trying to convince themselves they can rise above fentanyl, including her own daughter.
“Mom, you don’t have to worry about me, I know my limit,” she recalled her daughter telling her. “But things like fentanyl, you have no limit. Depending on the amount that’s in it, it’s too late. And unfortunately that’s what happened to my daughter.”
Swain said the time has come to give the fentanyl crisis the attention and resources it merits. She said several topics we mentioned in a special report July 20 resonated with her daughter’s situation, especially when it comes to social media.
“You really have no clue,” Swain said. “It’s like playing Russian Roulette with your life. Social media has such an influence on kids nowadays. I don’t think anyone realizes the impact. The things she saw, she would try. The things she heard, she would try. We have to do better. No different than any other pandemic, the fentanyl crisis right now in our society is a pandemic.”
We have reached out to Virginia Beach Police regarding the investigation of Ijonae Swain’s death, and whether it can be connected to any other death. They did not immediately respond.
