Carmichaels Area schools to apply for Naloxone grant
CARMICHAELS – The Carmichaels Area School District is applying for a state grant that will enable it to purchase Naloxone, an antidote that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
“There’s definitely a problem in the community,” Superintendent John Menhart said. “Heaven forbid, if we did have a problem here, this would allow us to be equipped to possibly save someone’s life.”
Menhart said during the school board’s Thursday night meeting the district will apply for the state grant, which is offered to school districts through Pennsylvania Department of Health. The district needed to get a prescription for two Naloxone doses from Centerville Clinic in Carmichaels and must train the district nurse, Daysha Donaldson, on administering the antidote. The doses will be secured in the nurse’s office in the middle-senior high school in case of an overdose emergency.
The district has not yet submitted the application for the grant, so it’s not known when the school will be stocked with the Naloxone doses.
The board also had to create a new district policy on Naloxone, which they did a few months ago.
“As a means of enhancing the health and safety of its students, staff and visitors, the district may obtain, maintain and administer doses of an opioid antagonist and other facilities, specifically Naloxone, for emergency use to assist a student, staff member or other individual believed or suspected to be experiencing an opioid overdose,” the policy states.
Menhart said the district, which was working on getting Naloxone for a year, is hoping to also train the athletic director, John Krajnak, in administering it.
School districts across the state were able to start holding Naloxone in 2014, when state law allowed for school nurses to administer Naloxone without parental approval.