ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Sheridan School District No. 2 is working with the University of Colorado College of Nursing to train teachers and staff members on how to use naloxone, a drug designed to rapidly reverse the opioid overdoses.
“In the last year, since COVID, we've had a few students in the district who have lost their lives or lost family members related to overdoses," said Alexis Barrere, CU College of Nursing senior instructor and pediatric nurse practitioner. "And so, in collaboration with the school nurses for the district who are employed by Children's Hospital, we worked with the superintendent of Sheridan School District to get approval to do naloxone training and have naloxone available, so that teachers and staff know how to administer it in an emergency in order to make sure that students receive the care that they need in the right amount of time.”
Barrere manages CU’s Youth Health Center on the Sheridan Campus.
“It's a small district, so we serve five schools,” Barrere said. “The training is for the staff at our preschool and at our elementary school, as well as with the middle school and high school and alternative high school. Of course, we're not expecting that it's going to necessarily be a kindergartner, a first-grader who's going to experience the overdose, but there are adults that come into the building, staff members, parents, older children, other family, maybe picking up a student from there. And so there's still risk for overdose. And so we think it's important that those staff have that training as well and are prepared in case of an emergency.”
Barrere said older students have been asking for naloxone in schools.
“They're learning about it and hearing about it on things like TikTok and Instagram, and they're thirsty for information and for support on it. I've had a student who was present when a parent of another student had overdosed and lost their life, and she said to me, 'If only we had Narcan in the home,'” Barrere said. “It's really meant to keep students safe, right? It's a tool, just like having a defibrillator.”
Natasha Hansson, a CU College of Nursing student, will help with the training.
“I think what's important to know about overdosing is it's not always heroin. It's not always street drugs. It's actually more common to be prescription drugs. Teens in particular, abuse prescription opiates that they find in their parent’s cabinet or the cabinet of their friend's house, because they think that because it's a prescription, it's safer. But heroin and opioids, same chemical. Body doesn't care if there was a script (prescription) written.” Hansson said
Barrere said she hopes equipping students, teachers, and parents with tools will help students feel safer and also save lives.
