LAUSD supplies Naloxone to K-12 schools after student overdose

Oct 7, 20222 min read

An initial supply of six hundred kits will be distributed among middle schools and high schools by mid-October.

By Sayeh Saadat, Staff Writer

The superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Alberto Carvalho, recently announced that the Los Angeles Unified School District, in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, will make an anti-overdose medication available to all K-12 schools in the county by mid-October.

The move comes shortly after Melanie Ramos, a fifteen-year-old Bernstein High School student, was found dead in a bathroom due to a fentanyl overdose. The decision was made in response to the epidemic of fentanyl overdoses in Los Angeles. California recorded 4,009 fentanyl related deaths in 2020. According to the CDC, this was a 140.5 percent increase since 2019, when the state recorded 1,675 deaths. Naloxone is an opiate antagonist which is administered either intravenously or as a nasal spray in emergency situations to reverse the respiratory depression caused by overdoses of heroin, morphine, fentanyl or other opioids. Police officers, emergency medical technicians, school nurses and first responders are trained on how to give naloxone to patients.

“We have an urgent crisis on our hands,” said Carvalho. “Research shows that the availability of naloxone along with overdose education is effective at decreasing overdoses and death, and will save lives. We will do everything in our power to ensure that not another student in our community is a victim to the growing opioid epidemic.”

The Naloxone Distribution Project (NDP) was created by the California Department of Health Care Services with the aim of supplying Naloxone to first responders, Emergency Medical Services, universities and other public service agencies. The agency is providing six hundred kits to the LAUSD to be distributed at all 184 high schools and 132 middle schools at no cost.

The LAUSD is also working closely with the health department to develop training and educational materials for communities in Los Angeles County. The appropriate staff, such as nurses, wellness center providers and trained volunteers will be trained to administer naloxone. Training for district staff will begin in early October.

The nation’s second largest school district has also formed a task force to investigate data in order to pinpoint areas of the district that are being disproportionately affected. Schools will continue working closely with the Los Angeles School Police and the LAPD to address safety issues, and is launching peer counseling for students and courses on drug use and impact through its Family Academy beginning the first week of October.

In an email from Evelyn Pichardo, the LAVC Student Health Education Coordinator, it was stated that college campuses and universities are not part of the NDP project. “I don’t have any knowledge of fentanyl usage on campus,” Pichardo said.”While I do Health Education, I haven’t yet done nor coordinated one on drug use.”