Last year, more than 50 unintentional overdose deaths were connected to fentanyl in Greene County, Ohio. According to Greene County Public Health educators, this is the result of fentanyl being mixed into the production of illegal drugs.
While Fairborn City Schools have not reported any student overdoses, the system is proactively adding naloxone to its on-hand resources. “It’s like having a first aid kit or AED,” Melody Kingsley, a Greene County Public Health educator who works with Ohio's DAWN Project said. During an overdose, Naloxone temporarily reverses how opioids affect the brain and restores a person’s breathing within minutes.
The school system is adding 20 kits in each of their four buildings' nurse's offices, providing access to 40 doses of naloxone per building. Kingsley considers this medicine as a common sense tool in all emergency response kits.
“Students could get something they don’t know contains fentanyl,” Kingsley said. “It’s 50-times stronger than heroinn— it’s very potent and it takes a small amount.” Kingsley also believes, “I think it will help in an emergency situation to save someone’s life.”
A little more than 4,000 students attend Fairborn City Schools.
“We’re seeing a trend in youth overdoses under 18–more kids are buying pills–a lot of times they’re getting fentanyl one way or the other and not realizing it.” Each building will also have a secure Nalox box in more public areas.
