CMS wants to supply campuses with Narcan

CHARLOTTE — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools could be on the verge of adding a new safety measure.

CMS leaders want to stock schools across the district with Narcan, which can quickly treat a drug overdose.

“We looked and there haven’t been, fortunately, any incidents of overdose from opioids in the schools here at this point,” said Raynard Washington, the director of Mecklenburg County Public Health.

However, the health department and school district leaders want to be prepared.

“We know that the risk of kids being exposed to opioids is increasing as fentanyl has gotten into the drug supply, as well as other types of counterfeit pills and edibles,” Washington said.

Charles Jeter, the CMS executive director of Government Affairs, says next week the school board’s policy committee will meet to discuss updating a district policy on first aid and emergency kits in schools.

“Anytime you get into policy stuff like this, and medicine, you got to be careful, so you got to get the wording right,” Jeter said.

It will clear the way for every elementary, middle, and high school to be stocked, potentially by the end of this year with two Narcan nasal spray kits at each campus.

Narcan reverses an overdose.

“It’s not a novel idea,” Washington said. “Communities have been putting Narcan in schools and other types of facilities as a response to the opioid epidemic.”

Washington says while school nurses would receive training on administering Narcan, the goal is to make it easier for anyone to help save a life.

“There are instructions,” he said. “An easy instruction guide on the kit, so that anybody could very quickly figure out how to use it.”

The school board will take a final vote if the Policy Committee passes the changes to allow Narcan kits in schools. Washington said the department is ready to roll them out as soon as that happens.

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