The two Old Rochester Regional school nurses and school doctor Dr. Jason Reynolds asked the Old Rochester School Committee on April 13 to allow the school to keep a supply of Naloxone, known as Narcan, in the nurses’ offices in the case of a drug overdose at the school.
“We can’t go a day without hearing something on the news,” said junior high school nurse Linda Deveau. Looking at the statistics, she said, “You can easily see this upward trend … the alarming trend continues.”
It is a health crisis, said Deveau.
Drug overdoses have surpassed traffic deaths in 31 of the United States, “and unfortunately, New England is in that area,” said Deveau. New England is in fact, she said, higher in drug overdose deaths than the national average.
“Unfortunately, we’re living in an area that really got hit hard with this,” she said.
High school nurse Kim Corazzinni added, “We are seeing way too many of these overdoses.” She added that the governor has declared a state of emergency and new laws are being crafted to address the issue, in particular allowing the possession of Narcan at schools.
“It’s really continuing, it’s increasing, and it’s becoming an everyday topic,” said Corazzinni.
In Massachusetts, Corazzinni said 133 high schools already have Narcan available on the premises, and she is hoping ORR will be the next.
Narcan, she said, works by “kicking out” the opiate drug from the body and cannot be abused because there is no other use for the drug and one cannot overdose on Narcan.
Corazzinni said there is a program that grants free Narcan to schools, and a two-dose kit usually costs $40.
“You have someone who’s stopped breathing … the sooner you give it, the better,” said Dr. Reynolds. “From a physician’s standpoint, this is like a no-brainer.” He continued, “We don’t want to wait until someone dies at one of our schools at a dance, at a football game, at a basketball game….”
The school nurses would be the ones at the school to administer Narcan in the event of an overdose.
“Teachers, family, deliverymen, substitute teachers, students, I mean, there’s just so many people coming through our doors and there’s just so many people in our area,” said Deveau.
The first step would be to devise a policy and protocol to follow before allowing Narcan to be kept at the school.
“We have to stop thinking about opiates being a problem of the socioeconomic class because … it’s not something that’s confined to the inner city or a poorer town,” said Reynolds. “It’s (heroin) cheap, it’s easy to get … and we see it all the time.”
The school committee expressed support for the request, yet took no action until a policy could be brought to them first.
“The best practice right now is for the doctor to work with the nurses,” said Superintendent Doug White.
“This is just one of the tools in our toolboxes,” said Corazzinni.
The next meeting of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee is scheduled for May 11 at 6:30 pm at the junior high school media center.
By Jean Perry