Parents say AHS student was brave, generous, charismatic

ASHLAND — The adoptive father of an Ashland High School student who died earlier this week wants people to remember him as brave, generous and charismatic.

Andre Harrison, 19, died Oct. 3 of what officials believe was a drug overdose. 

Investigators have not said which substance caused Harrison — found by a friend at his Eagle Way apartment — to stop breathing. Police cite an ongoing investigation and are awaiting results from an autopsy and toxicology report.

His father, Jeremy Harrison, said in a social media post he believes his son died after “an apparent fentanyl-related overdose.”

A troubled past

Jeremy and Kim Harrison became Andre’s foster parents in 2014, when he was 9 years old. The couple finalized the adoption nine months later from Richland County Children Services. Andre was in third grade at the time. 

Jeremy Harrison said Andre moved frequently as a youngster to different towns in northern and central Ohio “with his birth mom and others.” 

“However, a special aunt recognized that Andre wasn’t in a safe place, and she made the gut-wrenching decision to take him to child protective services. At this time, he went to a foster home for first and second grade, where they helped him get on solid ground,” said Jeremy Harrison. 

His dad described Andre as brave. 

“Not only did he face a lot of hard transitions, but he also was vulnerable enough to do the hard work with us, mentors, and therapists from a history of abuse, neglect and a feeling of abandonment. He was unpacking these wounds in therapy almost weekly for many years,” his dad said. 

That pain, though, never went away, he said. 

“But we saw remarkable growth in him over the past nine years,” he said. 

As he grew older, his dad said he became a hard worker and that he loved to serve others — to a fault. 

“Once, in middle school, he had over $100 in birthday money, which he spent in one day buying candy and drinks for all his friends from the vending machine,” his dad remembered. 

Jeremy Harrison often heard from people that Andre was lucky to have him and Kim as parents. 

“But I would often push back. Andre wasn’t lucky, he had a lot of hard stuff happen in his life, more than a kid should have to endure. Kim and I were lucky, or more accurately, blessed to be his parents, and to see the light he brought to us and so many,” he said. 

Andre enrolled at Mansfield Christian for the first two years of high school. He joined the track team there and developed a fondness of running.

For his junior year, he enrolled at Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center, where he participated in the criminal justice program. 

“He talked about being in the military or being in the TSA,” his dad said.

Ashland High School was his home school, so he competed in track during his junior year. Then he started getting into trouble, his dad said. 

By March, he was charged with underage drinking. Court records show he pleaded “no contest” to the charges. The judge, Ashland Municipal Court Magistrate Fred Oxley, sentenced him to a year of probation with 20 hours of community work service required to be complete by Sept. 1. 

He finished his junior year through online classes, but trouble with the law meant a half-season suspension from competing in track.

The public trouble was a wake-up call. Andre was remorseful, his dad remembered. 

“Although he was in trouble for drinking, he had been vaping THC. He told us he was really scared of it and didn’t want to use it anymore. He actually asked us to start drug testing at home. So we did. And he was clean for a long time,” he said. 

He completed the court-mandated community work service by July 13. 

When it came time to decide on classes for his senior year, the family decided to stick with online courses. It worked for him, his dad said. He had a job at McDonald’s, where he worked mornings. 

“He was working everyday 5 a.m. to noon. And then he’d come home and do online school and go to track practice. It was a really good thing for him … we wanted to keep the rhythm that worked well for him,” he said. 

At some point, Andre started vaping again. This time, he hid it from his parents. But they knew about an August appointment with the probation officer. They asked him how it went.

“He said, ‘good,'” his dad said.

Still, they could tell something was off. 

“When we confronted him in early September, he didn’t want the accountability he asked for before. It didn’t go well,” he said. 

That’s when Andre grabbed some things and left, his dad said. He moved in with a friend and his mom, who live in a Montgomery Crossings apartment.

Two weeks later, Andre’s parents discovered Andre had lied to them.

The truth? Andre had failed his drug test. On Aug. 21, a drug test from his probation officer came back positive “for THC and fentanyl.” Court records show Andre admitted to using marijuana while on probation.

“Then he went to court a week later and pled guilty for drug use,” his dad said.

Court records verify this. On Aug. 28, Andre pled guilty to violating probation and the court set a date for a probation violation sentencing on Oct. 30.

What happened? 

Harrison’s friend, a minor, found him unresponsive at around 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 3 in an apartment at Montgomery Crossings, records show. He called 911. 

“He’s not waking up,” the friend told the dispatcher.

“Is he breathing?”

“No,” the friend said, crying. “I don’t know what to do.” 

Ashland Source obtained and reviewed the four-minute call through a public records request. To protect the caller’s identity as a minor, this publication chose not to publish the audio.

During the call, the dispatcher encouraged the caller to perform CPR. The friend tried, to no avail.

“I tried and it’s not working,” the caller said.

The dispatcher encouraged the caller to keep trying until EMS personnel arrived.

“I know it’s hard. Just keep trying until the squad gets there … One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four,” the dispatcher said, counting CPR compressions. 

The call ended when EMS arrived. 

The Ashland County Coroner’s time of death was just before 7:30 p.m. 

The police officer who responded to the scene wrote in his incident report “fatal overdose at 1641 Eagle Way Apt 206. Suspected narcotics located in bedroom where the victim was located. Victim’s vehicle was towed to APD impound lot.”

Police seized 11 items of evidence from the apartment, along with Harrison’s vehicle, the incident report shows. Among the items were phones, a music playing device, three “corner baggies,” a bag containing circular pills inscribed with “M” and “30,” a glass jar containing marijuana and a THC vaping cartridge.

‘He didn’t know what he was doing’

The day he died, Andre had lunch with his adoptive mom. 

“It went well. He was struggling, but he was happy in a lot of ways, too,” Jeremy Harrison said. 

A couple hours later, Andre would experience a fatal overdose. His parents are convinced their son inhaled vapor from a THC cartridge laced with fentanyl. 

Fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, is a strong synthetic opioid drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to be used as a pain reliever and anesthetic.

“It is around 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin,” states the DEA on a factsheet about the drug. 

The drug can be snorted, smoked, taken orally by pill or tablet, or spiked into blotter paper and patches.

It can be “sold alone or in combination with heroin and other substances, has been identified in fake pills, mimicking pharmaceutical drugs such as oxycodone,” reads the DEA factsheet.

Media outlets around the country have reported suspected links between THC vaping cartridges and fentanyl.

The DEA in 2020 published a report citing a San Diego County Medical Examiner’s finding of fentanyl in vape pens. 

Ingesting fentanyl, even in small amounts, can be fatal. But the effect of inhaling the substance through vape pens remains largely unknown. 

“… the ingestion of fentanyl via vaping poses a threat of unknown consequences to the user and those nearby,” reads the DEA’s report. 

When asked if he shares Jeremy Harrison’s suspicion, Ashland police Chief Dave Lay said he can’t be sure until tests are performed on the substances found at the scene and in Andre’s body. 

“I can’t confirm it was fentanyl until tests reveal it,” he said. 

Nevertheless, Ashland County Prosecutor Chris Tunnell is disturbed by the whole thing and committed to prosecuting those responsible. 

“It’s very disturbing. I find it concerning. If there is fentanyl out there getting into the hands of young people, we want to find where this is coming from,” he said.

‘A wonderful heart:’ Calling hours, memorial service set

“When Andre got in trouble, it was big and public and visible for everyone to see, but anybody who really knew him knew he had a wonderful heart, he loved people and was loved by many,” Jeremy Harrison said of Andre.

Calling hours for Andre Harrison have been set from 1 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 10 at Park Street Brethren Church, 619 Park St. A memorial service is set to follow at 4 p.m. at the church. 

A private family burial will happen at Ashland Cemetery, his obituary reads. 

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for contributions to be made to Advocates for Families in Ashland or Fostering Family Ministries in Savannah.