On the list of troubling issues in America, it’s difficult to imagine there is a more pressing one than the opioid epidemic.
It’s difficult to overstate the enormity of the epidemic, one that’s gotten so out of control that almost everyone knows someone who has been affected.
To put the crisis into some perspective, consider this, courtesy of the National Institute on Drug Abuse: In the short time period from 2010 to 2016, the number of deaths in New Jersey from synthetic opioids has risen from 35 (in 2010) to 689 (in 2016).
It’s not difficult to do the math – that’s an almost 2,000 percent increase and it has to be downright frightening for anyone to read.
The good news is the state is aware of the epidemic and its schools are, too. Last Tuesday night, at its first official meeting of the New Year, the Deptford Township Board of Education approved a policy for having an opioid antidote on school grounds for emergency situations.
Deptford Township isn’t alone in adopting this policy: the state legislature passed the law, signed by the governor, in August.
“With the opioid epidemic growing, New Jersey passed legislation this year that requires all high schools – public, private and charter to stock an opioid antidote,” Superintendent Arthur Dietz said of the policy. “It authorizes school nurses to administer up to three doses of the antidote to a student, staff member or visitor without fear of prosecution.”
The New Jersey School Boards Association helped craft the policy for schools once it went into law. The newly updated policy, titled, Emergency Administration of Opioid Antidote; Training; Parent Notification and Liability, states a “school nurse or a trained employee designated shall administer an opioid antidote to any person whom the nurse or trained employee in good faith believes is experiencing an opioid overdose.”
The NJSBA also included a sample letter to be sent to parents and guardians individual districts could use to notify them of the policy.
The policy is fairly simple: an antidote must remain available on school grounds at every high school in the state in the event of an opioid emergency.
Some of the pertinent bullet points within the policy:
– An antidote policy must be put in place in every district or charter school that has any of the grades nine through 12.
– An antidote policy may be put into place for any of the schools in districts that do not have grades nine through 12.
– The opioid antidotes must be accessible during regular school hours and during school-sponsored functions that take place in the school or on school grounds adjacent to the school building.
– The overdose victim must be transported to a hospital emergency room by emergency services personnel after the administration of the antidote, even if the person’s symptoms appear to have been resolved.
“This would be another tool to help prevent the premature death of anyone on school grounds much like our automated external defibrillators,” Dietz said. “We have the antidote and AEDs available just in case an emergency situation presents itself.”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in data revised last winter, there were 1,409 opioid, synthetic and otherwise, deaths in New Jersey in 2016 alone, a rate of 16 deaths per 100,000 persons (slightly higher than the national rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000). The numbers are alarming.
But if you’re a parent, you can at least take solace in the fact that the state and its schools are doing their part in trying to prevent future tragedies in your township.
