By Thomas P. Caldwell
THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
BRISTOL — Mika Austin, the student representative to the Newfound Area School Board, said at the board’s Nov. 28 meeting that drug use is part of the culture at Newfound Regional High School.
“It’s everywhere,” she said. “It’s just normal to walk in [to the bathroom] and see someone doing drugs. … And the most upsetting part is it’s normal for us to joke about it, kind of like it’s just part of our culture.”
She explained that, every two weeks, prior to a school board meeting, she turns to her peers to ask what she should talk about. This time, it was drugs.
“It just really needs to be known that it is a really big issue, and it’s not just like a once-in-a-while thing. Like, the first day of school, I walked in on someone in the bathroom and it’s just really upsetting, and it’s here. It’s happening.”
Austin’s comments came during a meeting where school nurse Lisa Hodsdon made a presentation about how the school district is training staff to deal with possible drug overdoses, and how having standing orders from physicians can keep Narcan in stock.
Narcan, also known as naloxone, is a prescription medication used in the treatment of known or suspected opioid overdoses. The drug competes with the opioids to restore normal breathing and can reverse the effects of the overdose.
“We’ve all heard that there is fentanyl out there,” Hodsdon said, advocating for the essential training not only in the administration of Narcan, but to protect the person attempting to help.
“All you have to do is touch somebody else’s paraphernalia and you absorb it,” she said. “You can get an opioid in your system through touching and absorption. You can get it through ingestion.”
Anyone coming across someone in distress should call the office to have her paged, or even call 911, she said.
“It’s absolutely, absolutely, absolutely OK to call 911 if you are not sure,” she said. “It’s better to call them and have them come. That five- to six-minute timeframe is so important. The brain stops without oxygen.”
She said it can take 30 seconds to a minute to assess someone and figure out what might be wrong.
Without a standing order from a doctor, even as school nurse, she cannot administer Narcan, which is why she was asking the school board for a policy change to allow it. She also wants to train additional members of the school community in how to administer the drug.
“What we can potentially do is approve the standing orders and then send the actual policies [to the policy committee] so we can at least get it in the buildings, and then get the policy cleaned up,” she said.
The training also would include debriefing after the use of Narcan so everyone knows what to expect.
One of the effects of Narcan can be aggressive behavior once the person regains consciousness.
“So am I going to probably get punched in the face by somebody if it’s an aggressive man coming out? Yep. But it’s worth it to me,” she said.
The school board approved a motion to include Narcan on a list of standing orders for medical intervention.
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