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Tough family conversations and more transparency from Carrollton school officials are needed to protect children, speakers said at a meeting discussing the deadly dangers of fentanyl.
Three young Carrollton teens are dead and six other students have been hospitalized after overdosing on fentanyl or experiencing fentanyl poisoning, most of them since December, according to court documents.
“We can’t lose another child,” one mother said.
Nearly 200 parents and community members crowded a Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD meeting Thursday night to discuss the opioid just days after court filings revealed that a recent federal investigation connected the Carrollton teens’ overdoses to a house found mere blocks from R.L. Turner High School.
Some students as young as 14 picked up the drugs at the house and sold them to their peers, according to a criminal complaint.
The meeting started with a moment of silence for the students who have died before audience members shared their frustration about not hearing from school officials sooner.
“There’s been a significant lack of communication from the district,” another mother said. “There’s been several missed opportunities to address this topic.”
School officials added a discussion about fentanyl to the district’s meeting of the Student Health Advisory Council — a group made up of parents, staff and community members — after The Dallas Morning News reported on the string of overdoses among district students on Monday.
“Everything we do every day is about making sure our kids are safe … and making sure our kids go back home to you,” CFBISD Assistant Superintendent Lance Hamlin told the audience. “So this hurts. We’re all hurting.”
Hamlin said the district employs chemical dependency counselors who provide drug education and support for students in need.
The recent deaths and overdoses involve teens enrolled at Turner as well as at DeWitt Perry and Dan F. Long middle schools. In a Monday email to parents, the district detailed its fentanyl awareness efforts though it didn’t mention the deaths and overdoses or the federal complaint.
“This is not just our school district’s issue,” Carrollton Mayor Steve Babick told the crowd. “This is an issue that’s pervasive in our community.”
Multiple parents who lost children to fentanyl poisoning shared their stories during the meeting, encouraging other parents to communicate often with their children.
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[9/9] Ofie Moreno (center), a parent who lost a child to fentanyl poisoning, hugged Yolanda Graciano as the two women stood next to a photo of Moreno’s late son, Sebastian, after a Student Health Advisory Council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in Carrollton.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
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[1/9] Christina Peña holds a photo of her daughter, Angelina Rogers, who died of fentanyl poisoning, as she speaks during a Student Health Advisory Council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in Carrollton. Carrollton-Farmers Branch school officials included a presentation and discussion about fentanyl in a regularly scheduled student health advisory committee meeting, days after news broke that three teens died from overdoses and at least six others were hospitalized.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
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[2/9] People in the audience listen to a presentation on fentanyl during a Student Health Advisory Council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in Carrollton.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
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[3/9] CFBISD school resource officer Nik Stefanovic speaks during a Student Health Advisory Council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in Carrollton. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
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[4/9] People in the audience listen to a presentation on fentanyl during a Student Health Advisory Council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in Carrollton. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
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[5/9] Christina Peña wears a pendant with a photo of her daughter, Angelina Rogers, who died of fentanyl poisoning, as she wears a t-shirt reading “Stop Fentanyl Fro Crossing Our Borders” during a Student Health Advisory Council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in Carrollton. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
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[6/9] A man wears a t-shirt bearing the photo of Angelina Rogers, a 21-year-old who died of fentanyl poisoning, during a Student Health Advisory Council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in Carrollton.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
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Christina Peña, 50, said her daughter Angelina Rogers died from fentanyl poisoning in 2020 after taking half of what she thought was an OxyContin pill to ease the pain caused by endometriosis, a condition in which tissue similar to the uterus’ lining instead grows outside it.
Before the meeting, Peña said that last year, she asked to speak about the dangers of fentanyl with students in CFBISD schools but was turned down. She invited anyone in Thursday’s crowd to speak with her and ask her questions.
Along with other parents who have lost family members to fentanyl poisonings, Peña organizes awareness events and distributes informational flyers and naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medicine, to “save other children’s lives.”
Her daughter, who was 21, graduated from CFBISD’s Newman Smith High School in 2017.
“It was just horrific,” Peña said. “She never woke up … her smile lit up a room.”
CFBISD officials did not immediately respond to requests for comments regarding Peña’s petition.
At least three mothers of CFBISD students have told The News that they pleaded for help or alerted school leaders about drug use and pill peddling among students.
District officials have said they alerted parents about fentanyl in an October letter and held two presentations about drug use among teens, including information about the opioid, in November.
Thursday’s presentation demonstrated some of what students learn during awareness efforts at schools, including how even a dose of fentanyl as small as the tip of a pencil can be lethal.
Heather Hays, a nurse at Turner, described the signs to look out for to identify if someone may be under the influence, including such as slurred speech, itchiness or “pinpoint” pupils.
“It keeps me awake at night, worrying about students,” she said.
A school resource officer told the crowd that parents need to have “tough conversations” with their children and learn what they’re doing on social media and who their friends are as well as help them to understand that drugs “masked as prescription pills” can kill them.
Yvette Kaplinsky, 79, described how she helped her 8-year-old grandchild throughout the pandemic with remote learning. Now that the McCoy Elementary School third grader is back on campus, she worries about how to make the youngster aware of the dangers of fentanyl.
“I know that it could be in front of him right now,” Kaplinsky said, adding that the district needs to educate children “younger than you’d expect” as the drug is so easily accessible.