Harrison District 2 announces bulk Narcan order coming to middle and high schools

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs announced it’s expecting a bulk order of Narcan this fall, with doses expected to go into middle and high schools.

Until now, Narcan has been in District 2 schools solely by being carried by school resource officers. The district has one officer per school, and each officer typically carries two doses. District leaders say the decision to bring more doses into school buildings comes from Fentanyl concerns growing in the community.

“We recognize how prevalent and lethal fentanyl is ... We’ve had overdoses unfortunately to the north of us, and to the south of us, so we know it’s in our community,” said District 2 Security Director Martin Toland.

District leaders tell 11 News, the Narcan order was placed this summer through a grant run by Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment. It’s not known exactly how many doses will arrive, but leaders expect it will be enough to disburse among their middle and high schools. That does not include charter schools, according to district leaders.

This comes after District 11 brought the potentially life-saving nasal spray into it’s schools last year, following student fentanyl overdose deaths. District 11 also says this year, it is expanding Narcan in it’s middle schools.

For District 2, they’re planning to communicate with school staff and students on how Narcan works.

“My personal goal for the Narcan is to have as many people know about it and how to use it as possible,” Toland said. “If there’s trepidation about how do use it, we don’t want that. We want to get rid of that trepidation to know that you are not going to hurt somebody by using Narcan.”

The resource officer for Sierra High School calls the decision a “no-brainer,” saying that minutes are of the essence when trying to revive someone who is overdosing on fentanyl.

“The schools are pretty large, so if you have teachers or administration or say anybody that has access, the faster you can get going and the faster you can administer, the better the odds are,” says Charles Calloway, Sierra High School Resource Officer.

The El Paso County coroner has said 2022′s fentanyl deaths are relatively high compared to last years.

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