Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 33
Authorities Warn About Perils of Fentanyl • Pinkerton Elementary Will Close in May • Will Trustees Face Political Consequences? • Foundation Raises Funds via Furry Fashion
At my neighborhood’s National Night Out party on Tuesday, I was briefing two of my teenage neighbors on the previous night’s school board meeting. These brothers both went to Pinkerton Elementary, and their two younger sisters followed them; the youngest is a fifth-grader there now. One of those boys, a 15-year-old sophomore, told me, “I understand why they have to do it, but it’s still sad.” Wise beyond his years …
Authorities Warn About Perils of Fentanyl
Here’s the most important thing to know about fentanyl: one pill can kill.
W. Guy Baker, a special agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, wore a polo shirt with “ONE PILL CAN KILL” stitched on a sleeve when he spoke at the Cozby Library and Community Commons on Sept. 28. During a presentation billed as “Fentanyl in Coppell,” he shared statistics that can be found at DEA.gov/OnePill. Among those stats:
Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
Two milligrams of fentanyl can be fatal to an average person.
Seven out of 10 fentanyl-laced pills tested by the DEA contain a potentially lethal dose.
A kilogram bought from China for between $3,000 and $5,000 can produce 500,000 pills worth $1.5 million worth of profit.
Presentations like the one in Coppell are a common part of Baker’s duties these days; that wasn’t always the case. He’s been in law enforcement for more than 30 years, but he’s done more of these presentations in the past few years than in the rest of his career combined.
“The reason for the epidemic is the first high they ever get,” said another panelist, Coppell resident Shawna Houle. “They’re going to be constantly chasing that every time they use.”
Baker shared images to demonstrate that fake versions of Adderall and Xanax can often look more authentic than the real pills.
“If you’re not getting a pill directly from a doctor or a pharmacist, you should not be taking that pill,” Baker said.
Another panelist was Sgt. Byron Mitchell, who is one of the school resource officers at Coppell High School. He made it sound like information that may have been eye-opening for some of the parents in attendance would be common knowledge among our kids. Mitchell said Stephen Brinson, a teenager who was sentenced to 100 months in prison last year for dealing fentanyl-laced pills out of a home in Flower Mound, used to live in Coppell.
“This is a small, tight-knit community,” Mitchell said. “We have lost several kids to this. They know.”
One thing Mitchell recommended, besides talking to your kids about the dangers of pills, would be keeping doses of naloxone on hand. The nasal spray that can counteract the effects of an opioid overdose is marketed as Narcan and Kloxxado. It’s an over-the-counter product that you can buy at CVS or Walgreens.
However, Mitchell warned that naloxone won’t work with all drugs; it’s a constantly evolving system that he compared to upgraded phones. And another panelist, Life Safety Park manager Bethany Everett, described naloxone as a Band-Aid, because the user will still need medical attention. Everett also offered this warning: “Their attitude may not be the greatest when they’re coming off their high.”
Although Houle is a nursing director at Parkland Hospital, she was invited to participate because she is the mother of a recovering addict. Houle said her 18-year-old daughter has overdosed on opioids three times. The girl has been sober for 12 months, Houle said, but only recently recovered to the point where she had the wherewithal to apply for jobs.
Houle said the most impactful thing a user can hear is a success story from a previous user: “There is that other side of this, and you can get through it.”
Pinkerton Elementary Will Close in May
This is an edited version of the article published in Monday’s bonus edition.
A majority of Coppell ISD trustees voted to close Pinkerton Elementary School, but the future of its International Baccalaureate program remains up in the air.
The board took two divided votes during Monday’s meeting. The first was on a motion by Manish Sethi to follow the administration’s recommendations — close Pinkerton, move its IB program to Wilson Elementary, consolidate Wilson’s Dual Language Immersion program with its counterpart at Denton Creek Elementary, and level pre-K enrollment districtwide.
“We have to make some decisions that will not make everybody happy, but we have to move forward,” said Sethi, who later added this: “In my mind, there does not exist an option where a culture is not broken, where a community is not broken, where someone is not hurt.”