‘Really scary’ event reenacts a teen’s deadly drug overdose, funeral in SLO County
Parents and teens got a shocking, immersive look into the impacts of drug use and overdose Monday night, thanks to local nonprofit Lighthouse Atascadero’s annual “Reality Tour.”
The event, held at the Atascadero Lake Pavilion, brought Atascadero law enforcement, students, parents and community members together to stage a three-part drama featuring an arrest, an emotional overdose reenactment and a funeral.
It also included a workshop for parents on how to talk to their kids and a presentation from Atascadero police about how drugs are being distributed to San Luis Obispo County youth.
Around 100 people attended the event.
According to the latest data, drug overdoses were the leading cause of death for SLO County residents aged 15-24 between 2017 and 2022. Opioids, including fentanyl, have been at the center of many of these overdoses.
Conversations with parents and kids afterward showed the experience clearly left a lasting impression.
“It felt very, very real,” Atascadero mom Katie White said of the staged overdose.
“Seeing how the friends reacted, seeing how the mother of the child who had overdosed reacted, really hit home for me and my girls,” she said.
Reenactment shows reality of what overdose looks like
At the heart of Monday’s event was the harrowing overdose reenactment.
The drama began with an arrest scene: An 18-year-old was caught by law enforcement with drugs on her person while attempting to enter a locked car.
A voiceover described the teen’s journey with drugs prior to that arrest, starting with huffing markers in fifth grade to smoking weed to ultimately taking prescription drugs.
Throughout it all, she described herself as a normal teenager who outsmarted her parents on a few occasions and ultimately began to get high.
Then attendees were ushered into another building, where Atascadero High School theater student Kayleigh Luna played the role of a teen who overdosed from using fentanyl — an extremely potent drug that has resulted in teen deaths in SLO County.
As attendees watched, law enforcement and medical services attempted to revive Luna as other theater students — playing her friends — sobbed in the background and tried to explain to officers what had happened.
Retired Atascadero Police Corporal Rochelle Hanson-Torres — playing Luna’s mother — then ran into the room screaming, scrambling to get to her unconscious daughter as officers held her back.
In the background, emergency workers discontinued CPR, before finally declaring Luna’s character dead.
The event then pivoted to an emotional funeral scene, where the actors paid tribute to Luna.
The teenagers wept over her casket, remembering their experiences together in ballet and her love for the musical “Hamilton.”
“Once, I was just like you,” the recording boomed at the room full of teenagers in the audience.
Parents and teens say tour will inspire conversations
After the tour, families gathered to discuss their reactions to the event.
White told The Tribune that the Reality Tour was a great “conversation starter.”
“My daughter is just about to be a teenager, and I wanted to get ahead of the conversation and start the open lines of communication with her now, before she starts to hear about these things, see these things and possibly feel the pressures of middle and high school,” White said.
She added that she didn’t think her seventh-grader had received any drug education prior to Monday night. But after seeing the reenacted overdose Monday night, White said she planned to continue addressing these topics in the future.
White’s daughter, Lark, agreed that the reenactment was the most impactful part of the experience.
“It was really scary because that’s really what happens,” she said.
She added that the scene would help her avoid drugs in the future.
“I don’t want to do that,” she said.
And those are the reactions that Lighthouse Atascadero hopes to instill in parents and kids.
Educators and law enforcement offer advice to parents
The event also included education for parents about how to prevent substance abuse issues from cropping up in their own homes.
Paloma Creek High School principal Libby Madding encouraged parents to talk “with” their kids, rather than “at” them and avoid weaponizing shame. She also emphasized the importance of “celebrating” kids and helping them feel valued. Children feeling safe to talk to their parents, she said, can be a major factor in preventing drug abuse.
And boredom can be dangerous, she said — if a child says they are bored at school, parents need to take immediate action.
Getting kids involved in sports, music, dance, theater and other extracurricular activities can help them avoid falling into the boredom trap.
Madding also encouraged treating phones as tools rather than necessities. When a student asks to play with a phone, ask them why, and try to find a joint activity that can be derived from it, she said.
Atascadero Police Sgt. Sam Rodriguez also educated parents about what drugs are in the community and how students get their hands on them.
He said the most rampant drug problem at local middle and high schools is vaping — but police and school officials have found students in possession of psilocybin capsules and chocolate bars.
Rodriguez encouraged parents to watch out for counterfeit prescription drugs like Adderall and Xanax, which could be laced with fentanyl.
The most common apps to make drug deals include Snapchat, Instagram and Whatsapp — which all include the ability for messages to disappear, he said, while Cashapp is the most commonly used purchasing app.
Lighthouse Atascadero’s Reality Tour began in 2012
The Reality Tour was informed by the real experiences of local first responders, as well as Lighthouse Atascadero board members who have lost family members and friends to overdoses.
“The mission of the Lighthouse program is to provide awareness, prevention, intervention, and education in the areas of drug and alcohol abuse,” the group’s website says.
Joe Allen, director of the tour, retired from a 24-year career with the Atascadero Police Department. He also served as a youth sports coach for many of those years.
He told The Tribune he decided to get involved with substance abuse prevention efforts after two of his athletes became addicted to drugs and ultimately died.
“We knew that we had to do something,” he said.
The first Reality Tour occurred in 2012. Since then, Lighthouse and its parent organization, the Atascadero Greyhound Foundation, have branched out to offer counseling, provide life skills training to local students and continue offering annual tours.
Allen said he’s heard from students who said Lighthouse changed their lives.
“We’re doing this for all the right reasons,” Allen said. “If we can change one kid’s bad decision, we can change at least one life.”
For more information about Lighthouse Atascadero, go to www.lighthouseatascadero.org.
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