Rodrigo Torrejon

Staff Writer, @rod_torrejon

SOUTH HACKENSACK — The Board of Education approved the first reading of a policy that would allow the school nurse to administer an opioid antidote in the case of an overdose.

This was the first of two votes required to adopt the policy. The second and final vote is scheduled for March 13.

If approved, the policy would enable the school nurse to give Narcan — the brand name for the opioid antidote naloxone — to any student, school employee or other person. The protocol laid out in the proposed policy is to immediately call 911, but the nurse would be allowed to administer Narcan, potentially saving a life.

“We’d be first on the scene,” Superintendent Greg Maceri said. “It would give us the ability to act immediately.”

Wallington and Belleville adopted similar policies last month in response to the opioid epidemic throughout North Jersey.

The drug is widely credited with saving the lives of heroin and opioid-based painkiller users.

In 2016, first responders saved 180 people from overdoses with doses of Narcan, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. However, 87 people died from overdoses in 2016. As of Feb. 7, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office had reported 23 Narcan saves in 2017.

“The police department, we’ve been involved with several Narcan saves since it was instituted two to three years ago,” Chief Joseph Terraccino said. “We’ve had a number of them.”

Terraccino said that within the past year there had been a few calls where Narcan was administered. The majority of the department’s Narcan saves took place in the motels along Route 46. He also said that no overdose calls or Narcan deployments had taken place at Memorial School.

Maceri described approving the policy and having Narcan in the school as money well spent if it even saves one life. While he echoed that there had been no issues with opioids in the school district, he recognized the changing times and characterized the policy as a preventive measure.

“We have a robust LEADS program," Maceri said referring to the Law Enforcement Against Drugs education program. "And we understand in the middle school grades, there is an increased amount of peer pressure.”

Email: torrejon@northjersey.com