Students from three school districts in the region were recognized by the FBI for developing a strong message about confronting Western Pennsylvania’s opioid epidemic.

South Fayette High School students took first place in the Pittsburgh FBI’s “Heroin Outreach Prevention and Education (HOPE)” public service announcement contest, followed by Freeport Area High School and Pittsburgh’s Taylor Allderdice High School.

Opioid abuse across the country has changed, FBI officials said. It has evolved from direct abuse to a use and abuse in a variety of indirect ways, and also now involves cross-pollination with recreational drugs.

That change led to the 2019-20 contest theme, “Dangers of self-medication and healthy alternatives.” Students in each of the participating schools developed and produced a 1- to 3-minute video with the hope of educating other students about the dangers.

South Fayette’s winning entry is titled “The Choice is Yours,” created by Sean Becker, Trenton Delaney, Dea Monz, and Matt Sgro.

Here is its winning entry:

“Those of us at the FBI are doing everything we can to keep drugs out of the hands of children,” said FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Robert Jones. “We can’t arrest our way out of this problem. We have to educate our young people who at some point may face peer pressure to experiment with drugs. Through community partnerships like this one, we have the ability to reach more people and continue to put a dent in this epidemic.”

All three schools won in the contest’s “veteran” category, for schools that have submitted entries in the past.

Winners have a chance to be part of an “FBI Agent for a Day” program at the agency’s branch office in Pittsburgh and attend a Pittsburgh Penguins game. They also receive a grant sponsored by the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation used to enhance the districts’ audio/visual department needs.

“It was tough to select the winners,” said Dave Soltesz, president of the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation. “Each of the 54-plus entries provided a unique and compelling narrative of addiction problems facing high school students.”

Freeport Area High School’s second-place entry is called “Make the Choice to Be Better.” It was created by Ben Scott, Grant Crytzer, Joel Wilson, Mario Lucchetti and Madeleine Miller.

Taylor Allderdice’s entry is “H.O.P.E. Is Everywhere.” Its creators are Zaki Khouri, Renny Hortono, Ivan Flores, Josh Kipiler and Carl Baumgart.

Here is Freeport’s video:

And here is Taylor Allderdice’s:

For more information on the HOPE initiative and to view all the videos, click here.

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