ECISD provides training to combat drug poisoning

ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) -ECISD now has 100 employees trained on how to use NARCAN against drug poisoning emergencies.

All the ECISD police, nurses, and some administrators have gone through this training.

Three years ago these trainings began with only the police department going through them.

Flash forward three years to today, the school district has now trained other employees and plan to train more in the future.

“There’s literally like no risk to having it available, so the benefit outweighs the risk anyway, shape or form.” said Becky Rhodes, the Director of Nursing and Health services at ECISD.

Just this past school year, ECISD nurses had to use NARCAN to revive students three times.

ECISD police have also had to use it, but aren’t sure how many students they used NARCAN on.

Some of the steps learned during training are identifying whether the person is out cold because of a certain drug or if they’re having a different medical emergency.

The good thing is that whether they were poisoned or not, the NARCAN won’t have any negative effect towards the person.

However, the chief of police at ECISD says there is a crisis in their schools.

“Well, it’s a problem that’s facing our community. You know it’s really every community in our nation facing this opioid crisis. And having that training and knowing how to deal with that situation and having the necessary tool to deal with the situation. And that will save a live. Which is highly important.” said Jeff Daniels, ECISD Chief of Police.

One parent who had to take her son out of ECISD because he got addicted to fentanyl, says she’s glad they’re finally doing this.

However, she questions why it took so long to implement it.

“I actually think that this should’ve happened a long time ago. It’s great to hear that they’re actually noticing that there is a problem with our youth.” said Vanessa Marquez, a concerned parent.

She went on to say that everyone in ECISD should go through this training in case of an emergency.

Marquez works with the 1:11 Project organization that is advocating to save the lives of people who come in contact with fentanyl.

Even though this is just a start to resolving a major issue in the area, the school wants to make sure they’re doing all they can to combat drugs.

Chief Daniels says that narcan is available for residents to purchase and use in case an emergency occurs.

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