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Bethel Park School District considering arming nurses with Narcan

By Cara Host For The Almanac Writer@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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Nurses offices in Bethel Park School District may soon carry naloxone, the anti-opioid drug used to treat heroin overdoses.

The state Department of Health recommends that all high schools carry the drug, which is also sold under the trade name Narcan. Bethel Park will consider having the drug available in all school buildings.

“This is considered a life saving drug,” Superintendent Nancy Aloi Rose said at the school board committee meeting March 15. “We’ve never had an overdose at school, but we have lost students (who have overdosed) at home as well as adults in our community.”

The state partnered with Adapt Pharma, an Irish company that makes a Narcan nasal spray, to provide a carton of the drug at no cost to all public schools. Bethel Park is considering purchasing additional doses so that all schools can have it.

“I think it would be foolish to ignore the fact that some middle school students are using drugs too,” said school director Jim Means.

Schools in other parts of the state have already started stocking naloxone. Bethel Park school officials said they would look at those districts’ policies concerning the drug and prepare a policy for the local board to consider, perhaps as early as the board’s regular meeting March 22.

The drug works to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Opioids include heroin as well as many prescription pain medications.

A 2014 state law, known as Act 139, allows schools to legally administer naloxone and provides protection from liability. State police troopers, as well as many emergency medical technicians, carry the drug.

School nurses as well as an emergency response team from each school building will be trained in how to recognize an overdose and how to administer the antidote.

In another matter, school officials reassured parents who were concerned after rumors of a weapon at Bethel Park High School prompted a lockdown at the building March 10. A student apparently posted a threat on social media, which prompted administrators to order a lockdown and a search for any weapons. No weapon was found.

“Our emergency protocol was followed precisely. Our faculty knew exactly what to do. Had this been a real situation, we were ready,” Aloi Rose said. “I am very proud of our administration staff and the Bethel Park Police.”

Parent Erica Wodark asked whether the school district should consider installing metal detectors, but Director Ron Werkmeister said he worried metal detectors give false confidence, since there are many ways to bypass them, plus they may prove overly invasive.

The board also heard from Bill Zilcosky of the lacrosse boosters organization, who urged the board to increase salaries of all coaches as the board enters negotiations for a new contract with the teachers’ union.

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