OLYMPIA, Wash. — Within days of her son’s death from a fentanyl overdose, Maria Trujillo Petty felt she had to do something to educate students on the dangers of the opioids.
“I said from the very beginning, I was not going to let my son's death be in vain," said Petty.
Petty’s son Lucas died in October of 2022. She said the 16-year-old smoked marijuana laced with fentanyl.
“You think it could never happen to your child,” said Petty. “It was a willful ignorance that kept me feeling safe for a very long time.”
When she learned health education courses in Washington state public schools did not require instruction about the dangers of opioids or fentanyl, she contacted Governor Jay Inslee’s office and her local legislator, Rep. Mari Leavitt.
A bill to create the “Lucas Petty Act,” mandating instruction about fentanyl, passed unanimously out of the House and Senate. It is expected to become law later this spring. House Bill 1956 requires the implementation of instruction on the dangers of opioids by the 2025-26 school year.
Maddy Thompson, Inslee’s senior policy advisor for education, said the governor’s office hopes the curriculum can be updated by the 2024-25 school year.
Petty said her work won’t stop at the Capitol. She is planning on telling Lucas’s story to students at three Tacoma High Schools in March. Next year she would like to visit middle schools.
"He's not just another number. He has a name, and that name is going to continue to do good things for other people,” said Petty.