Schools Stock Naloxone as Student Drug Overdoses Surge
Bandages, ice packs, aspirin and epinephrine have long been staples of nurse Dawn Baker's public high school medical clinic in Texas.
Now, she also stocks Naloxone to treat drug overdoses -- keeping a supply by the door in case she needs to save a life in an instant.
As the nation's FYL crisis claims a growing number of American teenagers each year, school districts nationwide are scrambling to acquire the opioid-reversing drug, train teachers and students how to use it, and combat stigma from openly acknowledging problems with addiction.
Last year, just two weeks after Hays County gave Nurse Baker six doses of Naloxone she was called to a classroom where a 16-year-old girl was unresponsive.
While illicit drug use among teens nationwide has been on the decline, overdose deaths – some of them on school property – have been soaring, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Around 500 U.S. teenagers died from a drug overdose each year between 2010 and 2019, CDC data shows. But in 2020, the number nearly doubled to 954 deaths; in 2021, more than 1140 teens died from a drug overdose.
The National Association of School Nurses has become so alarmed by the trend that the organization now advises schools nationwide to develop a Naloxone policy.
Thirty states expressly authorize the possession and use of naloxone in K-12 schools, according to the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association. But only 1 state - Rhode Island - requires all schools to keep it on hand.
Recent FDA approval for over-the-counter sale of naloxone is expected to accelerate interest in the drug and ways to increase its production and availability.
King says unfamiliarity with Naloxone and "stigma" around it are primary barriers to more widespread adoption.
Officials at Hays County Public Schools, just outside Austin, have had to use Naloxone 6 times since the district began stocking the drug in nurses offices. Five students have died off campus in the past year.
Administrators have produced videos of grieving parents to show students and released surveillance video of student overdose incidents on county campuses.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, after a recent rash of student overdoses, administrators are holding community training sessions throughout the year where free doses of naloxone are distributed to parents and children.
Earl Stoddard, a father who joined the session with his daughter Ava, said the dangers need to be talked about openly.
It's a conversation being had across the country, from Los Angeles, where the nation's second largest school district is putting naloxone in every K-12 school, to PTA meetings in Arlington, Virginia.
King, who campaigned to get epinephrine and steroid inhalers into the school nurses' office across Ohio, said the call for naloxone must come with funding for training and education to end stigma.
Source: ABC News