In the Valencia High School auditorium, William S. Hart Union High School District board members, students and parents watched 13 public service announcements with the incentive of educating the community and combating the fentanyl crisis on Friday night.
During the “Speak Out, Save Lives” Fentanyl Awareness PSA Award Ceremony, hosted by the Hart district, Action Drug Rehab & Mental Health, the WiSH Education Foundation and Los Angeles County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office, seventh- to 12th-grade students utilized their videography skills to inform viewers of the dangers of drug use.
“Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Accidental fentanyl overdone and poisoning deaths in Los Angeles County surged by 1,652%, from 109 deaths in 2016 to 1,910 in 2022,” according to the event pamphlet. “Our mission is to combat fentanyl misuse by amplifying student voices through inspiring PSA announcements, inspiring students to … lead change through research, creative expression and community engagement.”
The winners included the following students and their production groups:
- First place, $1,000: “Silent Descent,” Daniel Hovakimyan.
- Second place, $750: “Not Fine Dining,” Ten Mile Studios — Luke Landress, Gavin Helms, Owen St. Clair, Charlotte Brown, Tyler Landress, Jackson Via.
- Third place, $500: “Your Last,” Paloma Arciniegas.
- Fourth place, $300: “Moving Forward,” Good Morning Castaic — Myles Fredrickson, Hailey Fredrickson.
- Fifth place, $200: “One Pill Can Kill,” OzMO Studio — Aason Lee.
Master of ceremonies Janessa Ruanthong and Leann (Gabby) Vergara introduced each of the PSA videos, before Cary Quashen, owner of Action Drug Rehab & Mental Health, took the stage to speak to the attendees.
“The only way we’re going to stop this [epidemic] is doing what you guys just did. We have no choice. We have to educate our children. The gateway drug is anything — alcohol and marijuana. But the biggest one iscigarettes and nicotine. There are two reasons why a child would want to light a cigarette: peer pressure, and learned behavior from home,” Quashen said.
Quashen discussed his experience with treating patients for decades, providing advice for the teenagers to follow.
“Any drug that you take on the streets is waste. For 40-something years, I’ve been treating people. All day, all night. I ran psych wards for 16 years, I own treatment centers, and I keep saying the same thing: If you screw around, you’re going to die,” Quashen said. “There is no such thing as a safe drug, no one is immune to this stuff … One out of four Americans will have an alcohol or drug problem in their life.”
Robby Robinson, who works with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station and is a retired Los Angeles County gang probation officer, condemned the dealers in their profit-making roles.
“I was very hardcore when I was a probation officer. I had my heart opened up to people who were using drugs, but we were after the dealers and they should get a strict penalty. As Cary said, we have to stop being indenial. I have seen the way marijuana is with its THC [content]. I’m seeing a lot of parents and kids in denial — many people perish because of their lack of knowledge. The more knowledge you have, it’s better to fight for [the kids] than to see them go to jail. Don’t let them intimidate you,” Robinson said.
Before presenting the winners and the scholarships, Stephanie English, senior field deputy for Kathryn Barger’s office, congratulated each of the students on their videos.
“Great work, you guys. This was a lot of time that you put into it. There are short clips, but we can see all the work you put in. Great actors and actresses — you guys are leaders in this community. You’re making a difference, and these will be legacy-lasting projects,” English said.
Tara Brown, assistant superintendent of student services for the Hart district, and Sal Frias, chief administrative officer of student services and leadership support for the Hart district, concluded the ceremony by thanking the community for their support.
“Thank you for all you do and your support in these projects. The deadline was going to be before winter break, but we extended it, and with that, we got some more talent turned in. What we’re going to do is ask every school to play the top five videos … every student’s home school will receive their PSA so that they can see the work throughout the district,” Frias said. “We’ll blast out everything, all the videos, onto a website so they can see all of the videos.”
As stated in the PSA “It Just Takes,” by “Grounded,” a group consisting of students Nidhi Patil, Elyel Sanchez, Flora Luca Honti and Tvisha Premjith, drug use “doesn’t start with a choice — it starts with exposure.”
