Carolyn Kleinsmith lost her nephew to fentanyl poisoning when he was 29 years old.
“The effects of that affect our entire family all the time. He was like a brother to my son, and he struggles deeply,” Kleinsmith told the Sun on Feb. 1. “This epidemic is like nothing we’ve ever faced, and it will take all hands on board, including schools, to combat this problem.”
Kleinsmith works as the Santa Maria-Bonita School District’s program specialist for health services and has helped with the district’s efforts in obtaining naloxone hydrochloride for all junior high school sites, which began in late spring 2022. Commonly known as Narcan, the medication is an opioid antagonist that momentarily reverses an overdose’s effects.
“It’s important to have the ability to respond immediately and not have to wait for EMS to arrive,” she said. “It’s a life-saving factor; the faster you can get that Narcan in, the better the chances are for survival.”
The district board voted to change its policies to allow the medication on-site, and several teachers and staff volunteered to go through the proper training to administer the medication in case of emergencies, she said. As of Feb. 1, no staff member has had to administer naloxone on campus, but Kleinsmith said it’s still important to be prepared.
“We have to accept the reality we’re in and we have a fentanyl crisis in this country, and I think we’re responding in a responsible manner,” Kleinsmith said.
Countywide, school districts are stepping up alongside Santa Maria-Bonita by changing their board policies to allow Narcan on its campuses in the wake of a record-breaking year of opioid deaths with fentanyl—a synthetic opiate 50 times more potent than heroin—cited as a leading cause of death among residents, according to previous Sun reporting. Although Santa Barbara County schools have stepped ahead of the game, the state may update its laws with a new Assembly bill (AB 19) to require Narcan on public school campuses.
“AB 19 has not passed its committee, but we do not have to wait for that bill and we are not. We recognize it as a concern,” Kleinsmith said.
In Santa Barbara County, the number of opioid-related hospital visits for 15- to 19-year-olds more than tripled from nine visits in 2019 to 30 visits in 2021, and overdose deaths more than doubled between 2020 and 2021 with 18 deaths, said county Behavioral Wellness Public Information Officer Suzanne Grimmesey—citing data from the California Overdose Dashboard.
“Our local data shows the majority of opioid overdose deaths involve fentanyl, about 75 percent,” Grimmesey said. “It also supports that the availability of fentanyl, including fentanyl being mixed with other substances, is the primary contributing factor to the increase in deaths.”
According to county data, the demographic impacted by opioids is also changing to a younger population, with the average age of death shifting from 30- to 40-year-olds in 2020 to 15- to 24-year-olds in 2021. Nationwide, drug overdoses are now the third leading cause of death in children in the United States, according to 2020 Centers for Disease Control data.
Behavioral Wellness is still working with the county Sheriff’s Office to finalize 2022 data, but preliminary results show deaths trending upward with a slight decrease in adolescents, Grimmesey added. To continue ensuring adolescent safety, Behavioral Wellness has been working with school districts to get sites equipped with free Narcan from the state.
“All secondary county schools have updated their policies to allow Narcan on campus, and as soon as that happened, each district received training on Narcan. Upon training being completed, Narcan was delivered to the school sites,” she said.
Lompoc Unified School District updated its policies in spring 2022 and began moving forward with the county in order to get Narcan on all of its campuses, Assistant Superintendent of Education Services Brian Jaramillo said.
“It wasn’t in our policy because it was not something that had come up before. In order to be able to administer an emergency procedure like that, in this case medication, for legal purposes it needs to be in our policy to do that,” Jaramillo said. “It’s a matter of having an understanding that this is a current issue in our community and it’s a policy that needs to change.”
When administering medications, school districts need to have prescriptions from doctors saying they can use it for a specific individual if necessary, with the exception of state-required epinephrine, he explained.
“That’s why it’s in our policy so it’s not dependent on individual situations or individual prescriptions,” Jaramillo said. “It’s in our policy that people can use it. We have people trained, and they are able to use it in emergency situations.”
As of Feb. 9, no overdose instances had been reported within the district, and opioids have not been a huge issue in Lompoc historically, he said, but they have become a bigger issue as time has gone on.
“Specifically it’s about the danger, the danger of fentanyl and the danger of the risk of death, the risk of hospitalization, and the need to have an emergency response that is quicker than calling 911 and getting the fire department or ambulance there,” Jaramillo said.
Now that Lompoc staff members completed their training, the district can expect Narcan on-site some time later this spring, and the district plans to hold informational outreach meetings for students and staff surrounding the response, he said.
“People are ready for us to be ready and have it available. There’s a lot of concern in the community about this,” Jaramillo said.
California may push other jurisdictions to join Santa Barbara County if AB 19 passes—which would require all public and charter schools and offices of education to carry at least two doses of naloxone at all times, and require the state to cover the costs.
Assemblymember Joe Patterson (R-Placer County), proposed the bill in December 2022 after someone in his community passed away from fentanyl poisoning, Patterson told the Sun.
“We’re living in a reality that kids are going to make mistakes and have accidents. It’s so important to educate families and have that lifesaving treatment out there, which I think is good news,” Patterson said. “If you think about a couple years ago, this wasn’t something people knew a lot about, but in just the few years people are waking up and saying this is impacting our communities.”
Patterson estimated that providing two doses of naloxone at all schools across the state would cost the state about $1.5 million, “not even a fractional decimal in the budget,” he said.
It won’t affect private school policies and procedures, but he said it will get every public school district on the same page, noting that some districts are reluctant to provide Narcan on campus.
The bill still has to go through a multi-month process and needs the approval of several committees before making its way to the Assembly floor. If the bill passes, it wouldn’t take effect until January 2024, he said.
“Most people go to public schools. You’re there as a child the majority of your life,” Patterson said. “If we’re going to mandate [that] people go to schools and there’s risks on campuses, we have an obligation to make sure our kids are safe there.”
Reach Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor at toconnor@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 16-23, 2023.
