SAN DIEGO — In tears, mom Laura Brinker-White describes how just one pill to treat anxiety laced with fentanyl took her 17-year-old son's life.
"It wasn't an overdose, he did not sit down and take 10 pills before he went to school that day, he took, he just took one. He did not know that fentanyl was in that pill to the degree that it would kill him,” Brinker-White said.
It was May 2021 when teacher, football coach and parent at Cathedral Catholic High School, Matt White, noticed his son Connor White did not show up to his AP U.S. History class that morning at 9:45. White rushed home to find his son was upstairs dead in his room.
"The toxicology report said that the fentanyl inside the pill that killed Connor was I think about three times the amount of what would kill one person,” White said.
Connor was an honor roll student with a 4.2 GPA and played football for Cathedral Catholic High School as a linebacker. His father and teacher studied with him the night before he died for an exam.
Both parents said they knew Connor struggled with anxiety but didn't know he was taking pills.
"He had a drug dealer, who said you know, I have this medication or pill that can help you with that,” Brinker-White said.
His parents said they noticed mood changes in Connor when COVID lockdowns in 2020 kept him isolated at home, and they say Connor was greatly impacted by the murder of his teacher and football coach Mario Fierro last year in February.
"I wish that I would've educated myself more, and that I took it more seriously. I didn’t know anything about fentanyl other than it was a medication,” Brinker-White said.
Connor's parents will join San Diego County leaders on Wednesday night to speak at a virtual townhall titled "How to Talk to Your Kids About Fentanyl."
"How many deaths is it going to take for us to really recognize how serious the problem is? Why isn’t there more outrage and people wanting to change this in our society,” White said.
County Supervisor Jim Desmond, District Attorney Summer Stephan, the Chief medical examiner, an ER physician, and the U.S. Attorney's office will talk more on the dangers of the drug. Last year, fentanyl was the leading cause of death in the U-S for 18-45-year-olds.
"Don't you know that street pills are killing people at a faster rate than were killed in the Vietnam War?’ White said.
Connor's parents want all parents to be aware of how quick fentanyl can impact a family's life forever.
"It's really hard to describe the void that is left. We get into routines as family, and all of a sudden, all of those things that were a part of his routine are just all gone,” White said.
The townhall will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, June 8th at 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Zoom- Meeting ID: 862 9013 6920 (Spanish Translation Available) Passcode: 073421
WATCH RELATED: 13 fentanyl deaths over three days in San Diego County (May 2022)