SAN MARCOS, Texas — Texas State University researchers are partnering with Hays County school districts to fight the misuse of fentanyl.
According to those researchers, Hays County ranks in the top 15% of fentanyl poisonings and deaths across Texas, and they want to reduce that number.
The Fentanyl Education Support Training Awareness (FESTA) program was created last September with a $1.8 million dollar grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), with the intent to last the next five years, according to program director Dr. Kelly Clary.
In March and April this year, the group plans to enter Hays County schools in Wimberley and Dripping Springs ISD to educate students from sixth-12th grade about unintentional poisonings.
“We know that fentanyl is in our community. We know that fentanyl can be in any street drug,” Clary said. “In Hays County we’ve seen almost 80 accidental fentanyl poisonings since January 2022, and we know that about 40% of those are under the age of 18.”
Lawmakers also passed Tucker’s Law in 2023. The law is named after Tucker Roe, a 19-year-old from Leander who died of fentanyl poisoning.
It requires substance abuse educational programming in Texas schools. Clary says they thought this was the perfect time to combat a growing issue in Hays County.
She says she and a team of social workers and psychologists are creating an interactive curriculum that specifically targets sixth-12th graders regarding the topic.
Clary says there’s often a stigma in school environments when talking about substance abuse, along with a lack of awareness about how easily drugs can be accessed by younger populations.
“I really think that education is power and for these youths to have this information so they can make informed decisions moving forward when they do potentially interact with somebody who is offering to buy them a Xanax or a vape,” Clary said.
She says the program also wants to change the language surrounding accidental fentanyl poisonings. She believes that the less stigma there is around the topic, the better outcome.
“This is going to continue to unfortunately be a problem, right? So we have trained the trainers set up for years four and five, where we will teach teachers and faculty how to implement this educational curriculum so that they can do that when the funding does end in five years,” she said.
Clary says they are also collecting survey data for the area about the perception and attitude towards fentanyl to better understand how to improve and change the current curriculum.