Bedford County VA school system refuses to use lifesaving Naloxone drug
LYNCHBURG, Va. November 14 2019 — Naloxone is a drug that can save people from an overdose, but some local school nurses don’t have it on hand.
Governor Ralph Northam signed a law that went into effect July 1 adding school nurses to the list of people who can administer and store naloxone in schools, but it is not a mandate.
Still – some school nurses have not started carrying the life-saving drug.
On October 4, Bedford County Schools spokesperson, Ryan Edwards, said a student was found unresponsive at Jefferson Forest High School. Then, the student was taken to the school nurse where a student resource officer gave the student naloxone.
After that, the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office said the student regained color in his face and was able to answer questions.
Shortly after the incident during an October 10 Bedford County School Board meeting, a division administrator who oversees Bedford County school nurses said she didn’t want to have naloxone on hand.
“I think part of the concern is this false sense of security that there is a rescue medication for experimentation,” Beth Robertson, the associate director of learner support services for Bedford County Schools, said. “We don’t want to contribute to that false sense of security.”
Other school districts, like Roanoke County, don’t see it that way.
“Why would we not? If we can prevent one person from overdosing, if we can prevent just one, then it’s done its job,” Jessica McClung, the assistant superintendent of human resources and student services for Roanoke County Schools, said.
While they haven’t had to use it yet, McClung said they’re glad they have it.
She said they also have multiple programs to teach students and parents about addiction and prevention – holding community meetings to talk about this nationwide epidemic.
“When we put our head in the sand, that doesn’t make the issue go away,” she said. “Now’s not the time to pretend it doesn’t exist, now’s the time to be proactive.”
Roanoke County schools were the first in the state to equip school nurses with naloxone in 2017. She said their school nurses were “on the forefront,” of this process, but putting naloxone in the hands of school nurses wasn’t an easy process.
“At that time there wasn’t support really, even at a state level for that,” McClung said.
Now – there is.
“The General Assembly made effective July 1st that school nurses are written into the law and they are able to possess and administer naloxone,” Alexandria Robinson, a REVIVE! Coordinator said.
REVIVE! is a program through the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services that offers free training on administering naloxone.
While anyone can participate in the free training and carry naloxone, Robinson said school nurses and school administrators are different from the general public.
“The difference is that they are working at the school and so they are working under the school board,” Robinson said. “It separates them from being laypeople in the community as now official employees of a school board.”
Robinson said even if you use it on someone who is not overdosing, the drug is still safe.
“It’s recommended even if you are not sure someone is experiencing an opioid overdose, to administer naloxone in case they are,” she said.
If anything were to go wrong, which Robinson said is unlikely, there are Good Samaritan laws that protect people when giving naloxone to someone who they believe is having an overdose. For school nurses and administrators, she said those protections need to be written into a school board policy.
“While we do have laws that offer civil immunity to individuals who are administering naloxone when they believe someone is experiencing an overdose. All of the language that applies specifically to that school is going to be written within their policy,” she said.
Still, many school systems have not yet brought on naloxone.
The Department of Education sent out a survey to all 133 Virginia school districts in October; 89 replied and only 10 of those school districts currently equip nurses with the drug, 45 said they are considering a policy, and 48 have Student Resource Officers who carry the drug.
“We need to do the research to make sure that we are covering all bases,” Felicia Preston with Martinsville City Schools said. “If we can save a life, we want to save a life.”
Preston, the Director of Pupil Services with Martinsville City Schools, said they are one of the many districts that are considering equipping school nurses with naloxone, but are waiting for the Virginia School Boards Association to create a policy everyone can use as a guideline.
“If the Virginia School Boards Association does release a policy or suggest a policy for naloxone in schools, that’s where we get our policies from in our school division,” Preston said. “So we would use that policy if this was something that we were deciding to do for our school division.”
McClung, with Roanoke County Schools, said even a draft of a policy could help other districts move in this direction.
“We definitely, always examine the Virginia School Boards Association policies to see if we want to adopt those as well,” she said.
McClung said it would also save the schools time and money.
“Because if they’re writing it themselves, they’re probably asking their school board attorneys to review,” McClung said.
Charlene Vail, the Coordinator of Health Services for Roanoke County Schools, said she gets a lot of phone calls from other districts asking for advice.
“At this point I don’t think it’s as much hesitation as ‘where do we go,’ because the School Boards Association hasn’t put out the information that they’ve needed,” Vail said.
The Virginia School Boards Association is a nonpartisan organization that gives local school boards policies to use.
The organization didn’t respond back for an interview request or comment about whether they are looking to provide a policy.
As for the Department of Education’s stance on this, they said the law leaves this decision up to the local school boards.
I tried to speak with Bedford County’s Division Administrator to see if her opinion had changed since the meeting.
A spokesperson said that while Beth Robertson oversees school nurses — she was not speaking for them.
I also emailed every school board member.
Those who responded said they would not comment until the topic comes up again at a future school board meeting.
WSET
