About 140 middle school students attended a Treasure Valley Youth Fentanyl Summit Tuesday — a first-ever event focused on trying to head off a tide of opioid use in schools.

The goal, organizers said, is peer-to-peer prevention.

“We see the end of the chain,” Idaho U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit said at the conclusion of Tuesday’s summit. “We recognize that prevention is worth much more than prosecution.”

Hurwit’s office, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the West Ada, Boise and Kuna school districts collaborated on the summit.

The event itself was closed to the public and the media, but organizers spoke to reporters at an informal briefing Tuesday afternoon. They said they are trying to get out ahead of an opioid crisis before it hits Idaho schools.

Prosecutors have not seen cases of fentanyl trafficking at the middle school and junior high school level, Hurwit said, but trafficking is definitely taking place at high schools and on college campuses. Hurwit’s office has had to prosecute cases of fatal fentanyl overdoses involving 15- to 17-year-olds.

Organizers focused Tuesday’s event on students from 20 area middle schools, picking that age group for a reason. They are hoping these students will be a bridge within their communities, connecting with high school students and grade-school students alike.

Opioids are not a widespread issue in Kuna schools, Superintendent Kim Bekkedahl said Tuesday. Vaping remains a bigger problem.

But Bekkedahl is hoping the students at Tuesday’s summit will help Kuna get out ahead of the opioid issue. She said she was encouraged by the brainstorming that took place Tuesday, as students talked about ways to deliver the message about the dangers of fentanyl.

Students also can be effective on a one-to-one level, she said. By saying no, students can have an impact on their peers.

“They’re followers at this age,” she said.