1/ California's Supt. of Education @TonyThurmond took swift action after our investigation exposed how few schools are equipped to reverse deadly drug overdoses on campus.
Teen overdose deaths in California recently spiked to a nation-wide high.
🧵:
@EdWriters
@nbcbayarea
2/ An overdose antidote, known as Narcan/naloxone, can bring people back to life. It's a nasal spray & the CA legislature first gave schools the power to use it on students 6 years ago. The state even offers Narcan kits for free, but we learned few schools have them on campus.
3/ We surveyed 10 largest school districts in #SanFrancisco Bay Area, home to nearly 500 schools and 320,000 students.
We learned:
- students have suffered overdoses at at least 40% of those school districts
- only 3% high schools have Narcan on campus; 0 middle & elem. schools.
4/ We showed our findings to California Supt. of Education @TonyThurmond. His office immediately contacted each of the school districts we surveyed to encourage them to get naloxone. Thurmond also wrote each of California's 1,000 school districts, urging them to do the same.
5/ Check out our full investigation to find out where your school district lands on the issue, and be sure to take a look at all the digital interactive features we've put together to help explain why this issue is so important.
nbcbayarea.com/investigations…
6/ Also, just 1 day after our story aired, a high school student in San Jose overdosed while on campus. That school is among the few that has naloxone, so principal was able to use it to save the student's life.
My colleague @newsdamian reported on that:
nbcbayarea.com/news/local/sou…
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