Way to go, Edina! If you haven’t heard, last week the Edina School Board unanimously approved a policy that permits all students to carry and administer Narcan, otherwise known as naloxone, while they are at school. To some overdose prevention advocates this may seem like an obvious or simple policy to implement, but if that were the case, why are we just now hearing about one of the first Minnesotan schools to do so? Part of the reason is that it takes bravery to face the opioid epidemic and admit that your own community will benefit from the presence of accessible naloxone. Many schools have policies against bringing over-the-counter medications to school that were made decades ago that should now be amended because of the relevance of naloxone. The position of Edina school board members on this issue was one of de-stigmatization, and the director of student support services for Edina Public Schools asserts “stigma is often a barrier to students suffering from addiction getting the help they need… and so that is something that is usually held in secrecy by people who are using, and with that secrecy it becomes life-threatening”. This change in policy will communicate to any student at the school who may be struggling with addiction that they are seen, that their life matters, and that their community cares about them and wants a better future for them, regardless of the choices they may have made. Here at CTO, we are overjoyed by this precedent set by Edina administrators, and we hope many, many more schools will soon follow suit.
Edina High School Permits Students to Carry and Administer Naloxone at School!
