Carrollton’s mom says 12-year-old daughter was given fentanyl pills at school

Carrollton’s mother says she was looking for help for her 12-year-old daughter, who has fallen ill. addicted to fentanylbut says her concerns were not taken seriously enough.

Carmine Williams says she alerted Carrollton-Farmers Branch administrators about fentanyl on campuses after seeing a difference in her 12-year-old daughter Chloe’s behavior last spring.

Neighborhood shaken in recent months as a result of an overdose of fentanyl, including three deaths. Parent meeting scheduled on Thursday evening to offer advice from health professionals.

“She was originally a student at Vivian Field,” Williams said. “I never had any problems with the staff. They were like a big, big happy family. And then what happened was that she got into a fight, and they sent her to Bea Salazar, and as soon as she went to this school, then everything went downhill.

School district website describes the Bea Salazar Learning Center as “designed to offer CFB students an alternative environment in which they can make positive changes in their behavior and ultimately return to their home campus.”

“She was like a playful child. She has a huge personality. She is very friendly. She just loves people, very artistic,” Williams said. “She went from just being cheerful to being always angry or sad.”

Williams said that Chloe fell asleep in mid-sentence and suffered from sudden weight loss.

“Her appetite has changed,” Williams said.

Weight loss, according to Stefanovich, a Carrollton Police School officer, is a major warning sign for parents.

“If your child stops eating and starts losing weight quickly. It’s usually a sign of opioid or fentanyl abuse, synthetic opioid irritability,” said Stefanovich, who is assigned to R. L. Turner High School.

“It also causes physiological dependence. So you can see that your child’s detox has a sort of very biological response to the need for it or the lack of it,” Stefanovich said.

“You can see it in their faces. The face starts to sink and sink, as if the life is being sucked out of them,” Williams said.

Chloe eventually confided in her mother and said that another student at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD had given her fentanyl-laced pills.

“She told me she would only do it twice a day, but the other kids did more. She showed me all kinds of pictures. For example, these kids had pill sandwich bags and they just handed them out,” Williams said.

Williams claims she reported it to school district officials so that the alleged teenage drug dealers could be tracked down.

“I extended my hand. I begged and cried for help. But I didn’t understand. And now all of a sudden everyone is so worried. When I started talking about it last May and June, I was getting ready for school,” Williams said.

Williams said only one school counselor gave her a list of treatment centers.

“I didn’t realize when I took her to Green Oaks how much of a process she would have to go through, including detox, then drug withdrawal and all that,” Williams said. “It really became a mental health issue because, you know, she struggles to stay clean and, you know, this different lifestyle that she’s used to because she was addicted to them at this point.”

Months later, Chloe has been treated at multiple facilities and struggles daily to stay sober. She now lives out of state, but her mom wants to speak up to help save lives.