Quick Take
After a schoolmate was expelled for overdosing in class, student filmmaker Kyle Santoro began exploring the roots of the opioid crisis among teens and what was causing his fellow classmates to self-medicate. His film "Fentanyl High" screens Thursday at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz and May 15 at CineLux Green Valley in Watsonville.
When Kyle Santoro was a sophomore at Los Gatos High School, a fellow student overdosed just a few classrooms away. Though the student was revived, the school promptly expelled him. Santoro said this was at a time when the news was filled with tragic stories of parents losing their children to the synthetic opioid fentanyl, and word was spreading about other local teenagers meeting the same fate.
All of those factors pushed Santoro, now a senior, to begin examining the opioid crisis and its dramatic effect on teenagers like himself. He initially envisioned the project as a public service announcement, but it quickly morphed into much more.
“I realized that it’s a lot more than just the fentanyl epidemic, so the whole point of the project is really diving into the ‘why’ behind self-medication among teenagers,” he said. “It’s really addressing the human psychology behind why kids even consider drug use, alcohol use, and even partying. In a lot of cases, all of those things can be used as devices as a form of escapism.”
That 14 months of work has culminated in “Fentanyl High,” Santoro’s 75-minute feature film that blends interview footage with a narrative arc shot from the perspective of high school students in Santa Clara County. It explores the reasons why teenagers resort to drugs, how they deal with emotional turmoil, and the role that ubiquitous societal features like social media play in the ongoing crisis.
“We’re trying to address the root of the problem rather than just saying to not take pills when you’re offered them,” he said.
His film will screen in Santa Cruz for the first time on Thursday at the Rio Theatre in partnership with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and Santa Cruz Community Health Centers. The event will include free distribution of Narcan, which is used to treat opioid overdoses, and a discussion with Santoro and local officials. The COE is hosting a second screening in Watsonville on May 15 at CineLux Green Valley Cinema.
It was the first feature-length film for the 18-year-old, though he has previously made a number of PSA video campaigns on issues like fire safety, bike safety, and climate change. “The biggest challenge was just balancing everything, he said, “because I am a full-time student as well.”
Santoro said that another major goal of the project is to break down the stigma surrounding the opioid crisis — something that harm-reduction advocates and substance use disorder professionals consider a vital step in controlling the scourge. He recalls that one of his peers approached him after a screening of the movie and said that her father told her that he was addicted to heroin in high school, and that she, too, had picked up drug use before her father had told her about his experiences.
“She said that he even said that if she needs help, she could come to him and he wouldn’t judge her or get her in trouble,” said Santoro. “That’s the exact type of response that we’re looking for — getting parents to look beyond the conflicts happening in the present and look at [their kids] as humans.”
The film has screened numerous times in various locations around the Bay Area since early December, and Santoro has received other powerful feedback. He said that after two screenings at C.T. English Middle School in Los Gatos, the school’s superintendent and principal said it was the most engaged they had ever seen their sixth through eighth graders in a student assembly.
“The biggest takeaway that people have been telling me about it is that they feel everyone in the film is sincere with the message that they’re promoting,” said Santoro, adding that many other documentaries on the topic can come across as coerced, especially with teen subjects. “Not only am I a teenager, but a lot of the cast is teens, too, so it’s extremely intimate with the team and in the peer-to-peer communication that it’s promoting.”
But other perspectives are also important in understanding the scope of the opioid crisis. At the film’s Thursday screening, that other perspective comes in the form of Carrie Luther, a Santa Cruzan whose son, Tosh Ackerman, died of an overdose in 2015 at age 29. He was a baseball player at Aptos High School and Cabrillo College, and became the first widely publicized fentanyl death in Santa Cruz County.
After her son’s death, Luther dove headfirst into helping others learn from the loss of her son. She has taken on major advocacy work at the state and federal level, pushing for the government to pay more attention to the issue. When Luther speaks to youth, she stresses that Tosh was no different than any of them.
“He was a great athlete, a good student, and he had dreams and wanted more in his life,” she said. “He would never have taken the pill if he knew it was going to kill him.”
Similar to Santoro, Luther has had powerful experiences sharing her story. Specifically with young audiences in schools, she said, teachers tell her the student body was “mesmerized” by her account.
“Kids, males and females are all shedding tears,” she said. “And I tell them you do not want to be that person lying in the casket for your family and friends to have to say goodbye to because you made one mistake.”
Luther applauded Santoro’s project, and said she thinks his work is very important in spreading awareness.
“I never could have imagined that a high school student would take it upon themselves to do this,” she said. “I’m really impressed with his awareness that it needed to happen. There’s been nothing like this, really.”
Santoro is working to arrange screenings for communities in counties all across the state. He said Gov. Gavin Newsom has already requested to watch the film. After broader statewide distribution, Santoro hopes to take it to the national level to send the message that he has learned himself over the past 14 months.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that you can’t judge someone for anything, really,” he said. “There’s always a reason behind why someone may cope with drugs, alcohol or any other type of unhealthy coping mechanisms.”
Luther knows that better than most.
“This can happen to anyone. None of us are immune,” she said.
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