Organization thinks fentanyl awareness efforts should start early

BUDA, Texas (KXAN) –  Elementary students filled an auditorium for an assembly at Doral Academy on Wednesday afternoon. 

The presentation started with a guessing game. But perhaps not one students of this age might typically play. 

“One of these is real, and one of these is fake,” Shelbi Hentschke, a Hays CISD special education teacher, said pointing to two pictures of Oxycodone pills. “Raise your hand if you think it’s the first one.”

While many students’ hands eagerly shot up, the point of the exercise was not to answer correctly. What Hentschke wanted to illustrate to the kids was how difficult it can be to distinguish a safe pill from one adulterated with fentanyl. 

“If you were given these two pills, you wouldn’t be able to tell,” she told the students. 

The presentation was organized by the Forever15Project – a nonprofit dedicated to spreading fentanyl awareness. 

 “I feel like the younger you get to students, the better,” said Janel Rodriguez, who founded the organization after her 15-year-old son Noah died of a fentanyl overdose in 2022. 

Rodriguez explained to the young children that Noah was a kind, smart and motivated kid. She went into detail about how her son died and the heartbreak her family experienced after his death.

Since Noah died, Rodriguez has spent much of her time in classrooms across Texas giving similar presentations. She told KXAN this was the first one given to students this young. Rodriguez said some of the material had been altered to make it more appropriate for young kids. 

“Fentanyl is just so dangerous,” she said. 

Rodriguez said while this is the first given to young students, Forever15Project plans on doing more.

“I'm not going to stop until kids are completely safe and we're not losing them at the rate that we are,” Rodriguez said.