As a means of enhancing the health and safety of its students, staff and visitors, the district maintains doses of an opioid antagonist for emergency use to assist a student, staff member or other individual believed or suspected to be experiencing an opioid overdose.
1. Symptoms of opioid overdose include:
- Unconsciousness or inability to talk or stay awake
- Unresponsive to voice or touch
- Slow or irregular or stopped breathing
- Deep snoring or gurgling noises
- Blue/purple/greyish lips, skin, or fingernails
- Pale, clammy skin
- Small “pinpoint pupils” (center part of eye is very small)
2. Availability of Opioid Antagonist and how it works
EPSD maintains availability of Naloxone, an opioid antagonist. Naloxone is accessible in the health room of each school building and in the Student Services Office, in the Administration Building and stored according to the manufacturer’s directions. School nurses monitor inventory and expiration dates and resupply as needed.
The goal of the use of opioid antagonists within the educational setting is to restore adequate spontaneous breathing while awaiting arrival of EMS personnel for transport to a hospital.
Opioid medications (like Vicodin, Percocet, and Norco) and illicit opioids (like heroin or illicitly manufactured fentanyl) work by binding to mu-opioid receptors in the brain. When this happens, they can cause someone’s breathing to slow down, something known as respiratory depression. Sometimes this respiratory depression can be so significant that it reaches the point where people stop breathing completely. Naloxone is a medication that is not an opioid but can also bind to the same opioid receptors. When it does, it blocks the effects of opioids and rapidly reverses respiratory depression, allowing someone to breathe again.
Non-prescription (“Over-the-Counter”) Naloxone Frequently Asked Questions
3. How to report a suspected overdose
During School hours, Immediately call the school nurse who will assess and administer the opioid antagonist if indicated and follow approved EPSD nursing protocol.
After school hours, if an employee has appropriately completed the PA DOH opioid antagonist training, and evidence of completing the training is on file within the district, the employee may follow the district outlined procedure including:
- Call 911
- Check for signs of opioid overdose
- Perform rescue breathing, or CPR, as instructed in the training
- Administer the Opioid antagonist.
- Continue rescue breathing.
- Administer a second dose of the opioid antagonist, if needed, as instructed in the training.
- Place in the recovery position, as instructed in the training.
- Stay with the individual until help arrives.
- Cooperate with EMS personnel.
- Notify the building and district administration.
4. Protection from criminal prosecution and civil liability
Pennsylvania offers protection from criminal prosecution provided by law for persons who report a suspected overdose using their real name and who remain with the overdosing person until emergency medical services (EMS) or law enforcement arrive. Protection from criminal prosecution is also provided for the person whose overdose they report.
Pennsylvania offers protection from civil liability provided by law for persons who report overdoses or administer an opioid antagonist in overdose emergencies.