Chris Herren shares story of his struggles with addiction
In the midst of today’s opioid crisis it’s not that surprising to hear that members of a high school football team were dosing with OxyContin before games. After being caught and forced to forfeit the season, what did surprise high school principal Mike Salatel was some of the reactions he heard from the community.
“One of the things that was discouraging about it was how much feedback I received back was about ‘what’s the big deal, Oxy’s like Advil, it’s no different than having a beer or a glass of whiskey on the weekend, it’s the same stuff,’” said Salatel. “That was concerning. It wasn’t just one person, it was multiple people.”
“We’ve got great teachers, we’ve got a wonderful community (and) awesome students but we sometimes have tunnel vision,” he said. “I was sitting there that night saying ‘we have a number of students, some of them recent graduates, that have unfortunately passed. Are we doing our job and do we have blinders on to think that stuff doesn’t happen at Geneseo?”
For Salatel, the football team incident was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He reached out to Herren’s organization shortly thereafter, not expecting to get a call back.
“But I did get a call back,” said Salatel, who received confirmation a few weeks ago that Herren will be travelling to Geneseo in February to share his story with students and the community.
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To read more about how Geneseo school officials are stepping up to address the opioid crisis, please visit Livingston County News.