A hush falls over the junior class at Coppell High School Arena as Pinkerton Elementary School Physical Education teacher Colleen Michaelis picks up the microphone and says,

“Addiction doesn’t have a zip code.”

Michaelis, CHS Principal Laura Springer and School Resource Officer Tonard “Tee” Warmsley spoke to the sophomore, junior and senior classes on Friday about fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can kill users in minutes, and its spread to nearby districts. 

An hour-long assembly was held in response to students from Carrollton ISD overdosing on fentanyl, three of whom died, and a high school junior at Plano ISD dying from fentanyl poisoning in February.

Michaelis’ son, Tommy McClenahan, died at age 24 from a heroin overdose in 2018. It was only after Michaelis received the toxicology report that she found out the drugs her son was consuming were actually laced with fentanyl – a fact that McClenahan wasn’t aware of, like most other victims. Tommy was the eighth Coppell High School graduate to die in 2018 from a drug overdose. 

“The medical examiner had said he’d died in less than two minutes,” Michaelis said.

Michaelis’s personal connection segued into the playing of a documentary, dead on arrival. The documentary gives viewers an insight into four parents who lost their children to fentanyl and their regrets of being uneducated about its fatality.

According to the documentary, fentanyl is known to be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. Popular social media applications such as Snapchat have become a “door dash” for drugs, with sellers telling the buyer anything – including misinformation about the drugs – to close a sale.

“The people who make the stuff, who are putting the fentanyl and everything, they have one goal: to get you hooked,” said Alex’s father, unnamed in the documentary – Alex died due to a fentanyl overdose. “Fentanyl is highly, highly addictive. They’re going to trick you into thinking you’re getting something you’re not to take you down that rabbit hole and have you become an addict because to them, you’re a customer and you’ll be a returning customer at that point. One of those times, you’re going to get enough fentanyl to kill you.”

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 70,601 deaths were reported in 2021 involving synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl. According to the documentary, by 2020, more than 50% of drug-related deaths were caused by fentanyl.

According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, “Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal depending on a person’s body size, tolerance and past usage.” Two milligrams is 1/10th the weight of one grain of rice.

Warmsley conceded that the current situation was far from what the norm should be.

“This is probably the most frightened I’ve ever been,” Warmsley said. “We don’t want to come in contact with this.”

Warmsley, however, outlined three choices that students could make: being courageous, being a positive influence and making them love themselves.

“Your mom, teachers, staff members, even some of the things that we see on TV have taught the difference between right and wrong when we’re talking about drugs; this is something that you should not be engaged in,” Warmsley said.  “Have the courage to do something that, in the back of your mind, you know you really should do.  Influence your peers, influence your brain, influence those that you truly care about. Because not just your words, but your actions can hopefully guide them to making the right decision. And when I speak of love, I’m talking about living on vision every day: the vision that you have for the future.”

To conclude the presentation, Springer left CHS students with some words of wisdom.

“I’m begging you, be smart,” Springer said. “If you know it’s here, tell us. Let us get it out of this place. If somebody offers you something, say no. And I don’t just mean here, I mean at parties, I mean wherever you are, say no. Don’t trust any pill, drug or anything, it could all be laced with something. Please guys, I love you. I need you here with me, every day.” 

Follow Sri Achanta (@sriachanta_) and @CHSCampusNews on Twitter.