San Diego

County Considering Training Teachers to Use Narcan in Classrooms

Your child's teacher could soon be trained on how to bring them back to life in the event they overdose on opioids.

The San Diego County Office of Education is looking into training teachers on how to use Narcan in classrooms, a preventative measure some teachers and parents say they’re all for.

Narcan is an FDA-approved nasal injection that reverses the side effects of opioid overdoses.

Law enforcement agencies carry it, as do 38 San Diego Unified School District resource officers on district campuses.

One San Diego mother says it should be in every classroom.

Jameson Harris was only a freshman in high school when opioids took control of his life.

“He wouldn't want anyone else to go through what we went through and he wouldn't want anybody's family to go through what we have gone through,” his mother Sue said behind tears.

He died in September 2016 at only 22 years old.

‘It's forever, our lives are forever changed,” Sue said.

Jameson overdosed on heroin-laced fentanyl. His mother says his addiction started when he was 15.

“The big message for these kids is don't even start. Just don't even try these drugs at all,” Sue said.

The Office of Education is working with the DEA and the Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force to learn more about proper Narcan training.

“I don't see anything wrong with the teachers being trained,” she said. “God forbid anything ever happens on any school. The epidemic is on the rise and these kids are in danger.”

The SDUSD says its some of its officers have been equipped with Narcan for the last six months, but none have had to use it.

There were 273 prescription drug deaths here in San Diego in 2017, according to the county’s drug abuse report card. That’s an 8-percent increase compared to the year before.

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