Becca Schmill Foundation – Advocating for Our Youth

Deb Schmill, Joann Bogard, and Kristin Bride holding photos of their children as Mark Zuckerberg “apologizes.” – 1/31/24 Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

**What members of Gen Z have to say about growing up in the digital world**.

Recently Published:

Deb contributed to this editorial piece published in the American Journal of Public Health: The Call for a School-Based Approach to Opioid Overdose Prevention

Anticipatory Guidance to Prevent Adolescent Overdose, written by Dr. Scott Hadland, Dr. Sarah Bagley, and BSF President Deb Schmill. The article provides tips to help pediatricians to have life-saving conversations with young patients.

SEXUAL ASSAULT

Learn about our advocacy and stats concerning sexual assault in young people.

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ONLINE HARMS

Learn about the research we fund and our state and federal advocacy to protect children.

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SUBSTANCE USE

Learn about our research, programming, and advocacy work.

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Why we are so passionate about this work

Becca’s Story

The Foundation was formed in memory of Rebecca (Becca) Mann Schmill by her loving family. Becca Schmill passed away on September 16, 2020, from fentanyl poisoning. She purchased the drugs with the assistance of a social media platform.

Becca was a kind, caring person with a gift for making those around her feel loved and appreciated. She was funny, adventurous, and determined. As a school friend said of Becca, “She managed to make those around her smile even when she wasn’t in our presence.”

At the age of 15, Becca was raped by a boy she and her friends met on a social media party chat. The rape was followed by a devastating cyberbullying incident. The two traumas left Becca with what she described as a hole in her chest. She soon started self-medicating as a way to fill that hole and cope with her pain. With just a few clicks on social media, she had access to any drug she wanted.

Becca’s story calls attention to the vulnerabilities of adolescence which are magnified in the age of social media. Today’s adolescents navigate a world that is far bigger, faster, and more chaotic than in the past. The online world they live in provides easy 24/7 access to adult content, sexual predators, and illicit street drugs, and allows children — who are by nature impulsive — to cause traumatic harm to their peers through the unescapable humiliation and permanence of cyberbullying.

The Becca Schmill Foundation’s primary objective is to prevent what happened to Becca from happening to other children.

LATEST NEWS

See all news and events here.

National Fentanyl Awareness Day
May 9 was the 2nd annual National Fentanyl Awareness Day. As part of our observance we posted these informational memes and we joined a fabulous speaker series. Here is an article from TIME online written by three dads who lost their sons, each to a single pill they believed was a pharmaceutical… Read more: National Fentanyl Awareness Day
Visit to Washington D.C.
On a recent trip to Washington D.C., I met with Representative Jake Auchincloss, and other legislator’s offices to discuss a coordinated government effort to inform all Americans about fentanyl.
I won’t see my daughter grow up because of social media. Don’t let that be your reality too.
(Boston Globe) – My daughter Becca’s official cause of death is listed as an accidental drug overdose due to fentanyl poisoning. But the painful downward spiral that led to her 2020 death at 18 began — and ended — with the assistance of social media. At 15, an online party chat was… Read more: I won’t see my daughter grow up because of social media. Don’t let that be your reality too.