Jillian Valdez, the school’s Program Manager Special Education/Student Services, hosted a Fentanyl Awareness Day meeting on April 29 in E02, where she played a video called “Song for Charlie,” an educational piece warning students about fentanyl.
The organization Song for Charlie was started by Ed Ternan and his wife after their son’s death due to a fentanyl overdose, Valdez said. Starting this non-profit to promote awareness about the dangers of fentanyl, she said.
“And so they have provided free resources to anyone who would like to have them, to show films to students, parents, teachers,” Valdez said.
The presentation talked about the amount of teenagers who die due to fentanyl, warning about the dangers of the drug, freshman Aditi Balasubramanian said.
“I never knew that fentanyl has been this big of a problem within high schoolers,” Balasubramanian said. “I didn’t really think about it much before the presentation.”
The presentation also covered the lethal dose comparing it to other opioids like heroin, morphine, and xanax, Balasubramanian said. Covering the dangers of buying illicit substances off the street as fentanyl is usually mixed in to cut costs, she said.
“I’ve read things about drug distribution and stuff, and it never really occurred to me that it was this big of a problem,” Balasubramanian said.
Because of the amount of fentanyl mixed in with other narcotics, it is very easy for unknowing highschool students to buy fentanyl without knowing, Valdez said.
“There has not been, in the time that I’ve been here in the district, a case of fentanyl overdose, but we are being proactive, which is why we’ve supplied all of our schools, even our elementary schools, with Naloxone, so that if there is an overdose, we’re prepared,” Valdez said.
The presentation talked about countermeasures against fentanyl overdose, how administering naloxone, also known as narcane, can help bring back someone suffering from an overdose, freshman Alexis Nguyen said.
“Naloxone is an antagonist drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of a fentanyl overdose to allow time for paramedics to arrive and provide life saving care,” Nguyen said.
Because of the small lethal dosage, and the contamination risks that drug dealers expose to their product, the presentation warns about getting anything from a certified medical official, Balasubramanian said.
“Now I feel way more aware about what I’m getting, and I will make sure that I only get stuff prescribed from my doctor. And if any of my family members or friends are going through stuff like this, I know a way to help them and, like, warn them of these dangers.
Overall, the presentation was very informative and welcoming but the video was too long so lunch ended before the video could, Nguyen said.
“They were very calming, and they were introducing it to us in a kind way, as if we didn’t know anything because we weren’t educated, Nguyen said. And they tried to do it in a way where we It didn’t feel forced,” she said.
