Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD holds meeting for parents to address fentanyl poisonings
CARROLLTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – What may be the biggest threat to the health and safety of children in North Texas brought a lot of parents together Thursday night in Carrollton.
A string of fentanyl poisonings among students, some of them deadly, have elevated concerns about a silent killer that is in our schools.
Parents learned about how widespread the problem is during a meeting Thursday night.
The mother of Angelina Rogers shared the painful details of her daughter's sudden death after taking a pill given to her by another high school student which contained fentanyl.
"She had oxys and she gave one to my daughter," Rogers said. "My daughter took half and never woke up."
The story is becoming all too familiar in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, which addressed a rash of fentanyl poisonings during a regular meeting of the School Health Advisory Council.
The resource officer at R.L. Turner High School offered insight into fake opioid pills called M30 that recently caused the deaths of three students and made others sick.
He now carries Narcan with him to treat opioid overdoses on campus and urged parents to investigate what their kids are doing.
"Open that phone and do everything in your power to have those conversations with your kids," he said.
Carrollton's mayor and police chief insisted that the city will prioritize enforcement of dealers, like the couple suspected of selling the tainted pills to the students who died.
"We do not have enough police officers for every street corner, we do have citizens on just about every street corner so we cannot be successful without you," said Carrollton Police Chief Robert Arrendondo.
Three mothers who all lost adult sons to fentanyl poisonings in the past year were present at the meeting.
They spoke to the room of more than 100 parents who were urged to examine their kids social media accounts and ask them tough questions or face the risk of losing them like Ofie Moreno did.
"I don't think we'll ever find any healing," Moreno said. "We just learn to adjust with life this pain will always be with us."
One of the takeaways from the meeting was, that if nothing else, parents should learn the slang associated with opioids and learn the side effects of fentanyl which takes only a tiny amount kill.