KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As families prepare to send kids back to school, districts and area leaders are focused on fentanyl.
Last year, Ethan Everly, a sophomore at Oak Park High School, died after taking a pill that was laced with fentanyl.
Unfortunately, Ethan is not the only teen who has died in our community, from a fentanyl overdose.
Schools across our area, including Kearney High School and Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, have Narcan on hand to stop a potential overdose.
However, leaders say the solutions can't stop there.
They met Tuesday to discuss solutions for the upcoming school year.
“This isn't about punishment, this is about how do we keep kids safe, how do we keep parents safe,” Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids said.
She met with other leaders at Shawnee Mission West Tuesday.
“How do we get to people earlier? How do we make sure people understand what the dangers are and how we can help each other? Too many of us have lost somebody. Too many of us have had to figure out how to help our friends or loved ones who are dealing with this,” Rep. Davids said.
That includes parents like Libby Davis who lost her son Cooper in August of 2021 to the drug.
“Our 16-year-old son Cooper, he and three friends decided to share two pills that they thought were prescription Percocet pills and they were not and Cooper did not survive that day. He had taken half of a fake pill and it ended his life,” Davis said. “We have pretty much been on a mission since day one to make sure that Cooper's death is not in vain and that something good comes out of our loss.”
Davis says she’s happy to see leaders trying to keep kids safe, but the conversations about the dangers of fentanyl start at home.
“I want it to be dinner conversations a lot so that they, those teenagers, never forget when they go out and don't get lost in the heat of the moment and just remember the lethality of what's out there,” Davis said.
Congresswoman Sharice Davids agrees.
"Young people who think they are taking something that is not fentanyl and then they end up dying,” Rep. Davids said.
However, as the school year quickly approaches, leaders and Davis say they are happy to see educators working to keep kids safe.
“For these teenagers, we have to keep it top of mind. Their brains are still developing,” Davis said.
“We’re just trying to save lives here,” Rep. Davids said.
