Maple Ridge trustees push for overdose kits in all high schools
The Maple Ridge school board is asking the provincial government to put anti-overdose kits in all B.C. high schools as part of a package of measures to combat the rising number of fentanyl deaths.
Board vice-chairwoman Susan Carr’s motion, passed this week, seeks “provincial standards for addressing drug use and possible incidents of overdose in B.C. schools, including protocols for training and administering of naloxone (Narcan) in all middle and secondary schools in B.C.”
A letter from the board is going to the provincial ministries of health, education and children and family development, after trustees unanimously passed Carr’s motion Wednesday night.
“It will talk about having a comprehensive best-practice strategy that will include education on recognizing the signs of an active user and the incidence of an overdose,” Carr said.
Naloxone can reverse the deadly effects of an opioid overdose when injected. “The naloxone kits would be a part of this larger plan to support staff in our schools with lifesaving tools.”
It’s the latest move against a rising tide of drug deaths blamed on street use of the potent narcotic fentanyl. The B.C. Coroners Service reported that illicit drug overdose deaths numbered 555 to the end of September this year, a greater number in nine months than the 508 overdose deaths recorded in all of 2015.
The coroners service said about 61 per cent of the 2016 overdose deaths involved fentanyl. In 2015, fentanyl was linked to 30 per cent of such deaths.
Carr also pointed to a report issued this week by B.C. child and youth advocate Mary Ellen TurpelLafond on the June 2015 death of Nick Lang, a 15-year-old boy in a court-ordered program on Vancouver Island.
Lang’s family had tried in vain to get help for their son’s drug problem before he ended up in the court system.
Turpel-Lafond’s report on Lang’s death called on the provincial government “to co-locate mental health and substance use supports in B.C. schools to increase the ability of youth to engage with services and to help support early identification and intervention for mental health and substance use problems.”
“It’s all tied to what I’m trying to do. It’s access to help when it’s needed,” Carr said.
Carr became aware of fentanyl’s dangers three years ago when a family member — now in recovery — became addicted to the drug. She said the trustees are waiting to hear from the provincial government, but she doesn’t expect change to happen quickly.
“They might have to look at things like collective agreements, liability,” Carr said. “But the conversation needs to happen. The whole health crisis, it needed to be linked to the schools, because that’s where 90 per cent of our youth are.”