I have recently been trying to get local high schools to make a drug education class mandatory as part of the high school curriculum. Drug classes teach not only how dangerous using drugs and alcohol at a young age are, but emphasize the long-term effects that occur due to drug use during adolescence.
Had these two been exposed to a drug class in high school, perhaps a tragedy could have been avoided.
A man in Newton, Iowa has been charged in connection with the Nov. 12 death of Shasta Sapp.
Wyatt Andrew Franklin, 19, of Newton has been charged with involuntary manslaughter (a class D felony) for allegedly supplying and preparing oxymorphone, a drug that Sapp consumed the night she died that authorities allege contributed to her death.
Authorities found Sapp had consumed alcohol and oxymorphone, a narcotic for pain relief that can cause euphoria, prior to her death. The level of the drug in her system contributed to her death, and authorities allege that Franklin supplied and prepared the oxymorphone that Sapp consumed.
However, the victim’s mother Linda Sapp said she never knew her daughter to drink alcohol or take narcotic pain killers and is skeptical that Sapp would have taken the drugs under her own power.
Franklin has been arrested and placed in the Jasper County Jail and is also facing charges of delivery of a controlled substance (a class C felony) and is in violation of a two-year probation he is currently serving for drug related convictions he received on Sept. 26.
An avoidable tragedy. The loss of a life and at least two or more ruined. There can never be too much education. We must never stop trying to get our children not to use drugs and alcohol.