Pitt County Schools is considering a plan to make a drug that can reverse opioid overdose available on campuses and to train staff members in how to use it.
Director of Student Services Karen Harrington told the Board of Education this week that 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.
“Even as a parent, I’m hearing I probably should have that with teenage kids in my house,” Harrington said, adding that accidental overdoses are on the rise. “Unfortunately, kids are taking things and they don’t know what’s in them. … It’s a scary, unfortunate need but something we just might want to think about.”
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.
School Nurse Manager Laurie Reed told the school board that school nurses have reported 39 incidences of drug-related symptoms on Pitt campuses this school year.
“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,” she said.
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.
Reid said in an interview that Narcan has been used twice at local schools in the last two years. During the 2022-23 school year, Emergency Medical Services was called to administer the drug after a visitor to a school became unconscious, she said.
Harrington told the board that there has been a 50% increase in the administration of Narcan by school staff members across the state. The drug was administered 21 times last school year, up from 14 the year before.
Although she said the number of incidents where the drug is needed is still relatively small, more school districts are beginning to develop policies around the use of naloxone.
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, following a vote by the Wake County Board of Education this week.
Harrington said Pitt County might want to follow suit in adopting a policy for the use of naloxone.
“It is safe and effective,” she said. “If it was used on someone that did not need it, it would not do them harm. Staff could have that in their possession. Anyone is covered under the good Samaritan law. If you use Narcan on an individual you would be covered, but would we want that extra layer of protection of having a policy in place?”
Reid said that because school nurses are licensed, they are not covered by good Samaritan laws. In many states, including North Carolina, good Samaritan laws do not limit liability of medical professionals providing emergency care at their place of work.
“You would think the nurses would be the most obvious people that would give it at school,” Reid said. “But, unfortunately, without having some sort of policy, it does sort of limit what they can do. They could actually be disciplined by the Board of Nursing for administering something that they don’t have a policy to be able to administer. So it ties the nurses’ hands a little bit.”
Harrington recommended that both school nurses and schools’ first-responders be trained in how to administer naloxone. She suggested that a policy would not guarantee that the school district would always have funding to provide the drug.
“Right now funding is not a problem,” Harrington said, adding that the over-the-counter is widely available and is distributed by the county’s health department. “At this point it does not appear that it would be a cost for us.”
The board is scheduled to consider a draft policy as early as next month.
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