A Carrollton mother says she sought help for her 12-year-old daughter who became addicted to fentanyl, but says her concerns were not taken seriously enough.
Carmin Williams says she alerted administrators at the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District of fentanyl on campuses after seeing a difference in behavior in her 12-year-old daughter, Khloe, this past spring.
The district has been rocked in recent months by fentanyl overdoses, including three deaths. A parent meeting was set for Thursday night to offer guidance from health service professionals.
“Originally, she was a student at Vivian Field,” Williams said. “I never had any problem with the staff there. They were like a big, big happy family. And then what happened is she got into a fight, and they sent her to Bea Salazar, and once she went to that school, that's when everything went downhill.”
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The school district’s website describes the Bea Salazar Learning Center as being "designed to offer CFB students an alternative setting in which to make positive changes in their behavior and ultimately return to their home campus.”
“She was just like a bubbly kid. She has a huge personality. She's very friendly. She just loves people, very artistic,” Williams said. “She went from being like, just bubbly to always angry or sad.”
Williams said Khloe would fall asleep mid-sentence and suffered from dramatic weight loss.
“Her appetite changed,” Williams said.
Weight loss, according to Carrollton Police School Resource Officer Stefanovic who only wanted to be identified by his last name, is a major warning sign for parents.
“If your child stops eating, and starts to lose weight rapidly. That's usually a sign of opioid abuse or fentanyl, synthetic opioid irritability,” said Stefanovic, who is assigned to R.L. Turner High School.
“It's physiologically addictive also. So, you might see your kid detox, you know, have kind of a very biological response to the need to have or if they don't have it,” Stefanovic said.
“You can see it in their face. The face starts to drop and sinking, like, it's like life is being sucked out of them,” Williams said.
Khloe eventually confided in her mom and said she had been given fentanyl-laced pills by another student at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.
“She told me that she would only do two a day, but the other kids were doing more. She would show me all types of pictures. Like, these kids had sandwich bags full of pills, and they were just passing them out,” Williams said.
Williams claims she reported it to employees of the school district employees for the alleged teen drug dealers to be tracked down.
“I reached out. I begged and cried for help. But I didn't get it. And now all of a sudden, everybody is so concerned. When I started talking about this in May and June of last year, I was going to the school,” Williams said.
Williams said she was only given a list of treatment centers by one school counselor.
“I didn't realize when I took her to Green Oaks how severe the process that she would have to go through as far as, you know, with the detox, then the withdrawals and all that,” Williams said. “It really became a mental health thing because, you know, she's battling to stay clean and, you know, this other lifestyle that she has become accustomed to because she was addicted to them at this point.”
Months later, Khloe has undergone treatment at several facilities and fights daily to remain sober. She now lives out of state, but her mom wants to speak out in order to help save lives.
