A young girl was digging through the kitchen cabinets looking for drugs in her friend’s house when she discovered a bottle of expired oxycodone.
The girl then ingested the pain pills in a bathroom.
Moments later, she was passed out on the floor.
That was a scene in a YouTube video shown last week to state Sen. John C. Rafferty Jr. in a presentation by the North Coventry Elementary School Robotics Team to illustrate the dangers of opioids.
The awarding-winning team shared its research on disposing of opioids and other prescription drugs without contaminating the waterways or getting the drugs into the hands of the wrong people such as the girl in the video produced by the team.
Gabriel Gonzalez, 10, a fifth-grader, then demonstrated the most effective way to destroy chemicals in prescription drugs.
“Using this sponge will deactivate the drugs,” Gabriel said to the senator when displaying a Deterra Drug Deactivation sponge during the hourlong meeting with the senator. “It’s an environmentally safe way to neutralize the drugs.
“If the medication gets into the water, a fish will eat it, and the fish will die.”
Gabriel was one of 10 students on the team, The Watery Wizards of Oz, that won a regional competition in the First Lego League’s international competition on hydrodynamics, a branch of physics that focuses on the flow of fluids.
The team of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders plans to compete in a state competition in February at the University of Pennsylvania.
The sponge, produced by a Minnesota-based company, Verde Technologies, is contained in a pouch of environmentally safe materials.
In July, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro supplied pouches to counties in western Pennsylvania, where he said the communities are hit the hardest by the opioid epidemic.
Rafferty said he understands the dangers of opioids, noting that when he had knee surgery six years ago, he was prescribed opioids for pain.
“I stopped taking them after three days,” Rafferty said. “I did not want to get hooked on them.”
Patrice M. Reiche, gifted teacher and coach of the robotics team, said the students were researching how to safely dispose of pharmaceuticals when they discovered the opioid crisis was a serious problem.
“I am so proud of the research they have done and the interest they have in the safe disposal of drugs,” Reiche said.
The Lego competition calls for a research project, making a robot, and providing a lesson in civics.
The students made a Lego robot they named Poseidon after the ancient Greek god of the sea. They programmed the robot to move on a wooden table from land to sea via an iPad.
As a result of the meeting, Rafferty said he plans to ensure the Deterra packets are available at community events in the Tri-County area.
“Because of you we will make the bags available at all community functions,” Rafferty said to the students.
Dr. Susan T. Lloyd, superintendent, said the students learned that by speaking out they can make a difference.
Contact Holly Herman: 610-371-5029 or hherman@readingeagle.com.
