Published: 03/23/2026 | Author: Eric Owens

Fathers who lost their children to fentanyl opioid poisoning are taking their grief directly into America’s schools. The message they delivered at a Michigan high school this February may have saved lives.

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Students at Clarkston High School in Michigan attended an assembly by a group called Fentanyl Fathers. It’s an offshoot of a larger organization called the Angel Army that seeks to educate young people about the devastating effects of fentanyl.

The event is part of a growing national push to use peer grief and raw storytelling to cut through where traditional anti-drug messaging has failed.

The Opioid Crisis by the Numbers

The fentanyl crisis is not a background statistic for these families, it is the defining catastrophe of their lives, and they want students to understand the scale of it.

The synthetic opioid kills an average of 279 people every day in the United States, presenters explained to the Clarkston students.

Perhaps most alarming, 35% of people who die of narcotics overdoses had a prior known opioid history, meaning the vast majority died the very first time they tried the drugs.

Oakland County, where Clarkston is located, saw a 37% decrease in overdose deaths in 2024 compared to the previous year, but organizers emphasized that the ongoing crisis continues to devastate families and communities across the state.

Fathers Who Lost Everything Take the Stage

The featured speakers included Bob Kiessling, a Rochester Hills father who lost both of his sons, Caleb and Kyler, to fentanyl poisoning on the same night, and Greg Swan, a West Bloomfield dad who lost his son Drew to fentanyl poisoning.

Kiessling told the crowd that Caleb, 20, was “super smart,” the kind of kid you’d want as a lab partner, while his younger son Kyler, 18, had a “real high emotional intelligence.”

The two brothers were 20 months apart and had been teammates on their high school wrestling team. They had even wrestled at Clarkston for meets. They died after a graduation celebration in a hotel room in the summer of 2020.

Swan’s message to students was urgent and unvarnished. He told the crowd it is no longer enough to simply say no to drugs. Students need to actively push back against peer pressure, verbally and forcefully, when friends attempt to introduce drugs into their lives.

With roughly 1,000 students attending each of two assemblies held that day, Swan said the group hoped to have saved seven lives, reflecting the statistical reality that fentanyl use claims 279 lives daily from a population of roughly 40,000 daily users.

Fentanyl’s Role in Youth Opioid Deaths

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. It is now the leading driver of overdose deaths in the United States and is routinely pressed into counterfeit pills indistinguishable from prescription medications.

Organizers warn that under no circumstances should a young person take an unprescribed pill, because six in ten counterfeit pills now contain a lethal dose of fentanyl.

Unlike heroin addiction or prescription opioid abuse, where tolerance typically builds over time, fentanyl can kill at first exposure, which makes the traditional “addiction awareness” framing insufficient.

The Fentanyl Fathers call it “fentanyl poisoning,” not overdose, to reflect that many victims had no history of opioid abuse.

Naloxone Distribution and Harm Reduction at the Assembly

Other speakers at the Clarkston assembly trained students on how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose using naloxone, the lifesaving opioid reversal medication.

The organization routinely leaves behind doses of naloxone at every school it visits and provides training for school staff, community members, and families who attend evening sessions.

The medicine is available without a prescription at most pharmacies. Naloxone treatment reverses opioid overdose and can be administered nasally, critical knowledge for any household, school, or community.

The Fentanyl Fathers program also connects students to mental health resources, substance abuse services, and free naloxone distribution in their communities.

Why School Assemblies on Opioid Addiction Matter

Clarkston High School Principal Gary Kaul said students had a clear desire to learn more after a shorter opioid presentation the previous year.

A group of students even raised money over the summer to help bring the Fentanyl Fathers to their school. Parents were notified ahead of time and given the option to opt their child out of the assembly.

Senior Brady Lehman said watching so many of his classmates raise their hands when asked if they knew someone who had died from fentanyl made the scope of teen fentanyl abuse impossible to ignore.

The Clarkston assembly was sponsored by Angel Army, established by Victoria’s Voice, Fentanyl Fathers and Eric’s House.

These organizations are dedicated to curbing the fentanyl crisis through awareness, education, and improved access to opioid overdose reversal medications.

Finding Help for Opioid Addiction

If you or someone you love is struggling with opioid addiction or narcotic dependence, peer support is available right now. Search Narcotics.com’s directory of NA meetings or call 800-934-1582(Sponsored) for immediate support.