Schools to make opioid overdose drug available on campuses

Pitt County Schools will make a drug that can reverse opioid overdose available on campuses beginning in August.

The Board of Education last week unanimously approved a policy making the drug naloxone available for emergency use beginning with the 2024-25 school year. The vote took place during a special called meeting on Wednesday.

Discussion of a policy began in May after School Nurse Manager Laurie Reed told the school board that school nurses have reported 39 incidences of drug-related symptoms on Pitt campuses in the 2023-24 school year.

A growing number of school districts across the state are developing policies around the use of naloxone. Narcan, the brand name for the over-the-counter drug, is a nasal spray that can be used to restore breathing in an overdose emergency.

“Thankfully, we’ve only had to actually administer Narcan once in the school system, and an SRO (school resource officer) was available and had the Narcan available to be able to administer it,” Reed said last month.

Like school resource officers in about 85 districts across the state, Pitt County SROs have access to Narcan for emergency use. In addition, since last year, every athletic trainer in the district has carried Narcan.

Use of naloxone in schools has become a topic of conversation nationwide. In October 2023, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Dr. Rahul Gupta said in a joint letter to educators that every school in the country should have naloxone available and that both faculty and students should be prepared to use it.

According to the N.C. Annual School Health Report for 2022-23, policies for administering naloxone are in place in more than 20 school districts across the state, including Beaufort, Nash, Wilson, Craven and Carteret counties. The two largest school districts in the state, Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, will have policies in place for next school year.

The new policy authorizes school nurses, school nurse extenders, athletic trainers and school employees who serve as first responders to use naloxone in an emergency. School officials said designated employees are scheduled to be trained this summer in how to administer the drug.

The policy indicates that naloxone will be available at each school, as long as funding is available. But it does not guarantee that the drug or a person trained in its use will be available in any particular situation. It also does not require naloxone to be available at activities held off school grounds or during transportation to or from school.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the board approved a proposal to spend $2.6 million to lease 6,500 Chromebooks for four years.