LAUSD Schools Will Stock Naloxone After Student Deaths
Los Angeles Unified schools will be stocked with the opioid reversal drug naloxone, following the recent deaths of nine students.
The county health department will provide the drugs at no cost to LAUSD. Staff training on naloxone usage will begin next month.
“We have an urgent crisis on our hands,” said Supt. Alberto 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.”
As CalSchoolNews reported, a 15-year-old girl recently died after ingesting fentanyl in the bathroom of Bernstein High School in Los Angeles. A number of other LAUSD students have also died in recent weeks after taking pills that were laced with the deadly drug.
San Diego Unified already stocks naloxone at middle schools and high schools. Elk Grove Unified in Northern California also provides naloxone to school security officers and their supervisors. And just this month, Santa Clara County supervisors voted to allocate $135,000 in state funds to supply local high schools with naloxone.
The distribution of naloxone at LAUSD will impact some 1,400 schools.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
