BY ALICIA FEYERHERM<\/p>\n\n\n\n
USD 489 schools will now have naloxone hydrochloride, a spray used for suspected opioid overdoses, in all school health offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Superintendent Ron Wilson explained the need for this spray during Monday\u2019s board of education meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNarcan is a life-saving drug, so if someone is suffering from an opioid overdose, it will reverse those effects almost immediately,\u201d Wilson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A policy has been created to guide the administration of the spray. The district does not currently have a full-time registered nurse in every building so the other health staff will be trained on administering the spray, much like they do for other medications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson also explained that while the district does not normally create policies for individual drugs, Narcan is unique because it is one of the only life-saving drugs that health staffs can administer. Without having it on hand, individuals would be waiting on first responders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis just gets it quicker should we ever have that unfortunate situation,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson clarified that iif Narcan was to be administered, 9-1-1 would still be called and first responders would arrive on the scene to further assist the individual. Nursing staff would only be responsible for administering the spray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The district has secured the spray at $50 a dose and the spray has a shelf life of two years. Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Human Resources Chris Hipp also noted that the spray has no adverse effects if taken unnecessarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not much liability in it because it\u2019s not dangerous in and of itself,\u201d Hipp said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson echoed that sentiment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll save a life, but it won\u2019t hurt you if you didn\u2019t really need it,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Board member Lori Hertel was glad the district is securing the spray as she said drugs are a major concern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m telling you they are very rampant in this area and they are making them now so that they look like candy,\u201d Hertel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson said that is part of the reason this initiative is district-wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of districts you might see they only do it at the middle and high school,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWe feel like it\u2019s to our advantage to have it in the elementary.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For children that young, the overdose is usually unintended but regardless, Wilson wants the district covered. This was only the first reading of the policy. The policy will be officially voted on at the next regular board meeting on October 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this meeting board members also:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BY ALICIA FEYERHERM USD 489 schools will now have naloxone hydrochloride, a spray used for suspected opioid overdoses, in all school health offices. Superintendent Ron… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":61259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[14480,14826,11297,14787,14383],"class_list":["post-68242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alicia-feyerherm","tag-narcan","tag-usd-489","tag-usd-489-board-of","tag-usd-489-board-of-education"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/USD-489-Monthly-Meeting-Update.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68243,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68242\/revisions\/68243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}