Key leaders in education, law enforcement, health services, and drug use prevention advocates will gather to speak on emergency opioid overdose response in schools, including new detailed guidance on naloxone storage, training and use. Naloxone (also known by its brand name “Narcan”) is a potentially-life saving medication that temporarily reverses the effects due to an opioid overdose. 

Naloxone is currently stocked in every Montgomery County public school as an emergency medication, and is available for free to Montgomery County residents without a prescription. Hundreds of MCPS students have received county-sponsored training at regional weekend forums. According to the new guidance, students are permitted to carry personally obtained naloxone on school property. This step is in response to the rise in youth overdose cases across the county and country. 

Media Briefing Details:

WHAT: Multiple county agency leaders discuss new school guidance on emergency opioid overdose procedures that will allow students to carry Narcan on school property.

WHERE: Health Room at Seneca Valley High School, 19401 Crystal Rock Drive, Germantown, MD 20874

WHEN: Monday, May 15, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.

WHO:

• Dr. Patricia Kapunan, MCPS School System Medical Officer 

• Marc Cohen, Principal, Seneca Valley High School

• Mark Hodge, Senior Administrator for School Health Services, Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services 

• Ben Stevenson, Manager, Prevention and Harm Reduction, Department of Health and Human Services

• Ed Clarke, Director, MCPS Department of Emergency Management and School Security

• Capt. Jordan Satinsky, Montgomery County Police Department

• Benjamin Kaufman, Montgomery County Fire Department

Members of the media are asked to contact Jessica_M_Baxter@mcpsmd.org to RSVP.