Elk Grove high schoolers get Narcan in fentanyl education campaign
ELK GROVE -- Some parents in Elk Grove were concerned when their high school students brought home Narcan, an overdose reversal drug, after a school assembly on Monday, but the organizers behind the assembly said it's the first step in educating teens about the dangers of counterfeit pills.
Pleasant Grove High School was the site of the first assembly of its kind through a partnership with Sacramento County Health Services, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, and a nonprofit, Arrive Alive. The two-year partnership sponsors events like the educational assembly for 2,800 students, to educate and provide resources for parents, students, and the greater community.
The partnership plans to bring this assembly to other area schools and the next event will be focused on parent and child conversations about counterfeit pills, also known as "fentapills" due to being laced with fentanyl. The program is aimed at increasing awareness and education about Fentanyl and its effects. It was open to all students at the school for maximum reach.
Speakers at the event included District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, Sacramento County Supervising Criminalists Kristel Suchland and Jonathan Charron, Sacramento County Dept. of Public Health Division Manager Lori Miller, Adventist Health, Rideout Sr. Nurse Anesthetist Talitha Canaan, UC Davis Emergency Medicine Dr. Aimee Moulin, and Laura Didier, Zach Didier's Mother.
Didier, a Rocklin teen, died after taking a fentanyl-laced pill he allegedly bought from a Sacramento man, Virgil Xavier Bordner, 22, who plead no contest to selling pills to the teen.
Students were given the opportunity to ask questions and be trained in the use of Narcan, which included pamphlets that went home with them that outlined how to use it, as well as an included QR code with more information.
When Michelle Chunn, a parent of a junior at Pleasant Grove High School, found an opened box of Narcan in her son's backpack after the assembly, she panicked because she did not know if he had ingested it.
"I hope every parent talks to their kid about the possibility of receiving this at school," said Chunn.
She told CBS13 her concern stemmed not from the education component of the assembly, but from the unknown of how Narcan could interact with her son's health history. He is a cancer survivor.
"What I found is they don't have studies specifically on people that have not taken opioids," said Chunn. She explained that as teens, oftentimes, students may not realize the seriousness of Narcan and hoped the assembly would start conversations between other families about the medication.
"If the school could act immediately, and reverse that overdose, then the teenager has the chance to learn from that mistake, otherwise it could be a fatal mistake, when they weren't even aware they were taking a risk in the first place." said Sarah Mars, an Associate Researcher at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine.
Mars said she prompted her own children's schools to educate students on Fentanyl and Narcan due to the widespread nature of counterfeit pills.
"If they [teens] have a smartphone they could be in any dangerous neighborhood in any dangerous city, dealers are approaching people on social media with these sales." said Mars.
Narcan is not harmful, according to Sacramento County's Public Health Division Manager, Lori Miller. Miller said if someone is not in an overdose situation, it won't harm them to use. However, she said the Narcan that was given out at the assembly came with instructions and training on why its important and how to use it.
"Narcan will reverse the overdose and save their life. So we want youths to be educated because they have the capacity to save someone's life," said Miller.
CBS13 asked about parental concerns to hand out Narcan to students and Miller said it's part of a wider campaign to destigmatize the medication.
"We want to normalize Narcan in our community to help people understand it's okay to have it." said Miller.
Resources related to Fentanyl education and the dangers of counterfeit pills can be found online at a Sacramento County DA-sponsored website, 1PillCanKillSac and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Mental health is also a critical part of the education for teens and young adults when it comes to street drug usage, resources and support can be found online, too.
