Daytona Beach school resource officers prep to fight opioid epidemic

Officers will carry Narcan for possible parent, student overdoses

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When school starts on Aug. 14, Daytona Beach school resource officers will be prepared to stop possible opioid overdoses.

This week, while teachers prepared for students to return after the summer Daytona Beach resource officers received training to administer Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal drug.

The heroin epidemic has spread across the U.S. with overdose rates creeping higher and higher. Earlier this summer, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency to free up state funds to combat opioid use.

In Daytona Beach, there were 56 overdoses only for June and July.

"Our concern is one of these kids are going to take it from their parents, you know, pain pills from their home," Officer Donald Rininger told News 6.

It was the first time Daytona Beach school resources officers have ever received a training like this. The officers watched video from the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Officer, which taught them how to deploy the anti-overdose drug in case a student or parent overdoses. It's the same video all Daytona Beach police officers have watched.

The resource officers also learned the signs and symptoms of a possible overdose so they know when Narcan could be administered.

Rininger said some school resource officer have already encountered parent's possibly high at their children's schools.

"We have had incidences where we have had parents actually showing up where they are high," Rininger said. "On that possibility they have to be taken to the hospital because they are on some sort of narcotic at the time."

Officers will carry Narcan at all schools, elementary through high school, because the epidemic has effected all age groups, Rininger said.

After the training, each school resource officer got two boxes of Narcan to be ready for the first day of school. To date, more than 100 Narcan kits have been distributed, allowing all officers in Daytona Beach to carry a kit.

 


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