Senator John Cornyn visited R.L. Turner High school in Carrollton Monday where he held a roundtable for fentanyl awareness.
The Carrollton-Farmers Branch community has been rattled by a series of juvenile fentanyl overdoses.
Ryan Vaughn lost his 16-year-old daughter Sienna to a fentanyl overdose just about two months ago.
“We had heard about the fentanyl. We talked about it with my daughter. We talked about drugs all the time, but her friend convinced her like kids do, through peer pressure, to try Percocet. She took a Percocet, and that was it. She had no idea she was taking fentanyl,” said Vaughn.
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On her recent birthday, instead of celebrating with her, they went to a fentanyl awareness event.
“What we have learned is that there is just not enough awareness out there amongst parents, and children themselves,” he added.
Saniyah Rodriguez walked into a bathroom in her school. She found a classmate overdosing.
“It was frightening but I knew to get help. We had seen a video at school where they told us how to recognize signs of someone overdosing,” said Rodriguez.
Law enforcement, superintendents and others spoke about the efforts to deal with the growing crisis of fentanyl.
Cornyn says he's working on a bill that supports law enforcement, education and recovery efforts.
“This legislation is really sort of an omnibus piece of legislation designed to deal with interdiction, prosecution, investigation and also the resources that are available to help address the challenge at the local level,” said Cornyn.
Cornyn says he will take what he heard Monday back to Washington to help craft the bill.
