ELYRIA — Kerri Johnson clung tightly to a framed photo of her son, Ryan, and watched the crowd with trepidation.
Will they listen to what she had to say or make comments to their friends as the gravity of her speech fell on deaf ears?
KRISTIN BAUER | CHRONICLE
Kerri Johnson, a Lorain resident who lost her son to a heroin addiction, speaks at Northwood Junior High School on Tuesday afternoon, May 17 about addiction.
She has delivered similar speeches to adults at drug awareness workshops, but this was Johnson’s first trip to a school full of teenagers. She also couldn’t escape the fact Northwood Middle School was the building her son attended when he first started using drugs
“This is my goal right here,” Johnson, 48, of Lorain, said. “Ryan started at this age.”
Principal Michael Basinski spoke first to prep the adolescent minds for the solemn message.
“This is an assembly for you, and probably the most serious one we have ever had,” Basinski said. “You are going to hear about the most unnatural thing in the world. If you see someone come into the world, you should not see them go out. You think drug problems happen to other people. They don’t.”
Police Chief Duane Whitely spoke. It bought Johnson a few more moments to collect her thoughts.
“This will affect you, your classmates and your family as life goes on,” Whitely said. “If you listen to it, it will benefit you. If you don’t, it will hurt you … Ryan was a Northwood student. He was in your school. He was in your seat. He was no different than anyone in this room.”
Whitely closed the distance between himself and Johnson, handed her the microphone and told her to let him know if she needed anything but that he knew she would do fine. The anxiety of speaking to a group of middle school students about her son — who died July 2, 2013, at age 24 of a drug overdose — was sinking in.
“Please don’t talk to your friends. I need you to listen to me because this is very hard for me,” Johnson said. “This is not me talking about someone I don’t know. This is me talking about my son.”
Drug scourge
The lead-up to Tuesday’s special assembly was all about the epidemic of heroin and opioid drug use sweeping Lorain County.
“The purpose is to offer open dialogue and information about the increasing drug addiction situation in our community,” said Amy Higgins, the district’s spokeswoman in an email announcing Johnson’s visit.
Last month, Lorain County Coroner Dr. Stephen Evans said deaths from opiate overdoses are expected to hit 120 in the county this year, highlighting the need for continued dialogue on addiction. The previous record number of heroin deaths was 67.
From public health departments readily offering the anti-overdose drug naloxone to families to law enforcement officials issuing warnings about the increasing number of fentanyl overdoses, the problem with drugs is so widespread that the audience who hears the anti-drug message is growing younger and younger.
“Statistics will tell you that 80 percent of all crime is related to drugs,” Whitely said. “I think that’s a lie. I think it’s closer to 90 percent. The people who are in prison mostly they are there because of something they did to get the drugs, because they were selling the drugs or they hurt someone because of drugs. Ninety percent is an awfully high percentage. Stopping that has to start somewhere.”
Whitely said speakers like Johnson are tough for him to listen to as a police officer.
He knows it’s his job to arrest the users who are the sons and daughters of people like Johnson. But police officers also are the ones knocking on doors to do notify family members that a relative has died.
“It never gets easy,” he said.
Ryan’s story
Johnson’s story began with photos of Ryan flicking by on a large screen. The photos included him playing outside, battling the chicken pox with a smile on his face, posing for the camera with his sister, Brittany, and with his Little League baseball team.
“There’s no happy ending. There’s no winner,” Johnson said.
Johnson said her son grew depressed as an adolescent. He went being from an honor roll, straight-A student who loved baseball to withdrawing from family functions and battling depression. He began hanging with friends who had older siblings who liked to drink and smoke marijuana.
“Ryan joined in because Ryan didn’t feel quote unquote normal or like himself,” Johnson said. “His addictive personality started then.”
Johnson said the downward spiral led to harder drugs.
“He started to be such a bad addict he would steal money, steal his mother’s jewelry and do just about anything to exchange for drugs,” she said. “I don’t mean when he was 24. I mean when he was 14, when he was 15.”
His first trip to rehab came when he was 15½. Instead of getting a temporary driver’s license like other kids, Johnson said she checked her son into an in-patient drug rehabilitation program.
It would not be his last.
For 10 years, Johnson said, her son’s addiction consumed not just his life, but her life as well.
Checking him into mental health facilities when drug treatment wasn’t available, watching for the signs he was using again, going through his bedroom when the worry became too much and dealing with the fallout of the criminal record he racked up.
“Ryan even knew he was going to be a daddy, but he was too sick from addiction,” she said. “He couldn’t stop.”
On July 2, 2013, Johnson said, Ryan’s grandmother found him dead in a bedroom at her home. He died alone. The day was also the day he and girlfriend, Jessica Minnich, then four months pregnant, were to learn they were having a son, a little boy named Doryan who is now 2½.
Immediate impact
The sniffles from the audience were so clear, Johnson didn’t have to worry about her message hitting home.
Students openly cried as she told her story.
When it was time to ask questions, students wanted to know about the Ryan they could have been friends with as middle-schoolers.
What did he like to do on holidays? What did he want to be when he grew up? Did he ever talk to his mom about what he was feeling?
“I really appreciate her coming here,” said 11-year-old Janiyah Harvey, a sixth-grader. She has to be very strong to tell her story. I know it was really hard.”
Fourteen-year-old Tyler Weatherbee, an eighth-grader, said he lost his cousin to drugs.
“But I’m sorry for her,” he said.
The hardest question came as Johnson talked about her grandson, Dorian, the toddler who is the spitting image of his father.
“What are your hopes for Doryan,” a student asked and the question nearly stopped Johnson in her tracks.
“My hope for Doryan is that he learns his daddy had a disease and that he wanted to be a good daddy,” Johnson said.
Johnson also has another secret hope for Doryan.
She wants her grandson to break the cycle of addiction. She wants him to grow up to be a drug counselor.
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