One of last holdouts in Johnson County, this school district may finally stock Narcan
One of the last holdouts in Johnson County, the Blue Valley school district might begin stocking naloxone, a medicine for treating opioid overdoses, amid a rise in fentanyl-related overdoses across the Kansas City metro.
Law enforcement and health care officials have been sounding the alarm about climbing overdoses across the country and in the Kansas City area. In March, the North Kansas City district lost 16-year-old student Ethan Everley to an accidental fentanyl overdose. Last summer, the De Soto district lost 16-year-old Cooper Davis, who took half a pill and didn’t know it was laced with fentanyl.
Earlier this year, the Kansas City Police Department announced that accidental overdoses from fentanyl had jumped nearly 150% from 2019 to 2020 in the metro area, most noticeable among teens and young adults.
The rise in such incidents has motivated more schools to stock Narcan, the brand name of naloxone, which can counter the effects of an opioid overdose within minutes. Officials in the Kearney school district, for example, said they saved a student’s life with the medication last fall, just days after receiving a fresh supply of Narcan.
Still, not every Kansas City area district keeps naloxone in stock, according to a sampling of area districts previously done by The Star.
In Johnson County, Olathe and Shawnee Mission schools stock Narcan. Shawnee Mission school nurses have administered Narcan twice since first placing it in school buildings in 2018, spokesman David Smith previously told The Star.
But Blue Valley does not yet stock the medication. That might change, though, under a proposal the school board considered at its meeting Monday night.
“Johnson County and Kansas, and across the nation really, has had an epidemic of opioids use,” said Mark Schmidt, a Blue Valley assistant superintendent. “By adding this to our policy, we’ll join our neighbors Olathe and Shawnee Mission who also have the ability to administer this life-saving medication.”
Under the policy, Blue Valley would begin stocking Narcan in secondary schools, for use by trained staff who “reasonably believe an individual is displaying signs and symptoms of overdose.” Use of the nasal naloxone would require a call to 911 and notification of parents or legal guardians.
The National Association of School Nurses has recommended since 2015 that schools stock naloxone as part of their emergency preparedness plans.
Blue Valley officials said that the school board will decide next month whether to change the policy.
This story was originally published July 19, 2022 at 3:03 PM.
