Public school board nixes naloxone kits
Trustees vote to focus on anti-drug education
WATERLOO REGION — Jamie Farrell lost her son Zion, 14, to an opioid overdose not long after they discussed drug risks. He died at home, the young victim of a poor choice and a public health crisis.
Farrell understands that local schools want to focus on education and prevention. She knows that drug overdoses are unlikely in schools.
Still she’s disappointed that schools are choosing not to stock emergency kits to reverse opioid overdoses.
“I feel like it’s a good idea to have them,” she said, knowing her son would not have been saved by a kit at his school. “If it happens and they don’t have it there, then what?”
Schools in Ottawa and Toronto are stocking kits containing the medication naloxone. Administered by nasal spray, it temporarily reverses the effects of an overdose of an opioid drug such as fentanyl or heroin.
In sometimes heated debate, the Waterloo Region District School Board voted 6-3 Monday against putting naloxone kits in schools and training staff to use them.
It’s an initiative that would have cost
almost $120,000.
“I’d just like our board right now to focus on what its mandate is, which is to educate,” trustee Carol Millar said.
Trustee Cindy Watson pressed the board to buy the kits.
“It’s a life-saving measure that needs to be in place,” she said. “We may never need to use these kits but it is necessary to have them in place.”
She likened them to EpiPens that save students from allergic reactions.
The procedure at local schools is to call 911 if an overdose is suspected.
The public school board will wait until September to reconsider naloxone kits.
Farrell’s son attended St. Mary’s High School. The Waterloo Catholic District School Board is also not stocking schools with naloxone kits.
“To date the role of school boards when it comes to public health issues such as this is to educate and inform,” board spokesperson John Shewchuk said in a statement. “For now, the status quo, which has been working well, remains in place.”
Opioid overdoses killed up to 71 people last year in Waterloo Region. That’s triple the number of overdose deaths in 2015. There’s been no report of an overdose death at a school.
“Schools continue to be a low-risk site for overdose,” said Karen Quigley-Hobbs, director of infectious disease at the regional public health department. “I think where we’re seeing the risk is more at parties and non-school-related activities.”
Public health officials wants drug users, their friends and families to have naloxone kits, Quigley-Hobbs said. Schools are a “a key partner for prevention messaging,” she said.
Last year, youth under 20 accounted for just five per cent of overdose-related paramedic calls and only four per cent of naloxone administrations, according to local public health data.
Drawing on a revised curriculum, teachers aim to discourage or delay drug use, to stop children from becoming addicts.