.jpg)
As the nation continues to face repercussions from the opioid epidemic, local entities are attempting to pick up the pieces whether it’s through using funds from financial settlements with pharmaceutical companies or adopting precautionary procedures.
The Virginia School Boards Association has been making updates to its policies to include the management of Naloxone, or Narcan, a medicine that reverses the effects of opioids and stops an overdose. Superintendent Phillip Thompson and other administrators at Rockbridge County Public Schools recently underwent training from the Virginia Department of Health to learn how to administer the drug in the event of an opioid overdose at one of the schools.
At the Rockbridge County School Board meeting on March 14, Thompson said, “It’s unfortunate that we have to do things like this with the respect to Narcan because of the opioid crisis we have throughout the nation and the commonwealth in certain areas, and unfortunately, we are not immune to it in Rockbridge County.”
He continued, “We felt like it was important to have nurses trained to administer Narcan as a life-saving measure if there ever were an overdose of opioids in our school, and we have changed that regulation here to include administrators and school resource officers … Yesterday [Monday, March 13], all of our administrators were trained for the use of Narcan.
“We are in a position now in which we must be vigilant in being prepared to deal with any accidental overdoses,” Thompson told The News-Gazette. From now on, Narcan will be kept at all nurse stations throughout the district, the superintendent noted.
