Texas Town Grapples With Shock and Anger at Student’s Deaths

VIDEO – AMERICAN NIGHTMARE –

March 16, 2023 – Astudillo planned to get her son medical attention the next day, but by morning he was dead.

“It hurts you to see your son after he’s gone and ask yourself, Why didn’t I know about this sooner to help him?”

Jose, who died in January, is among the nearly one dozen students spread across three schools in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District in Texas who have overdosed on fentanyl from September to March. He is one of three who have died.

The rash of overdoses has brought shock and anger to families in the Carrollton community, about 20 miles north of Dallas. It is also a sobering reminder of how rampantly fentanyl has made its way to young people in recent years.

“I never thought in a middle school there would be drugs like this,” said one mother whose 14-year-old daughter, also a student in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch district, survived a fentanyl overdose this year.

“I can’t imagine the pain of another parent who is going through what I’m going through,” said the woman, who asked that her name not be used to protect her daughter’s privacy.