Education Matters: Central Unified students are making a difference on campuses
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE) – A group of central unified students are showing how young people can make a difference on their school campuses.
In every classroom you can spot the red box, it holds the life-saving medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids including fentanyl. A group of Central Unified students are partly responsible for getting Narcan on campus.
“I’m really proud about the conversation and what it led to to make it available should it be needed. We don’t want to use it but we’ve got it ready should we need to,” said Ketti Davis the Superintendent of Central Unified
Nikolas Castanon was one of the students who went to the Central Unified school board with the proposal to make Narcan available on school campuses. He said it wasn’t easy and took time.
“I believe having an open dialog about substance misuse and fentanyl in our communities really allowed for us to go to the school board with knowledge and less stigma bout you know Narcan,” Castanon said.
Davis says the student-led policy expanded and Narcan is also available in all buildings on campuses. School Safety officers also carry the life-saving treatment on them.
“That expanded to our buses are having it on busses for field trips for transportation to and from school and being trained with our liaisons on their person,” Davis said.
Students who are participating in a health and wellness internship have also reached out to students and are continuing to educate them.
A student a Justin Garza High School, Akshneer Gill says she was surprised how little students knew about the dangers of fentanyl, which one pill can kill.
“We had fentanyl awareness week, where we talked about fentanyl. we had posters up with statistics and some of those posters are still up that people read and then we posted it onto our Instagram pages,” Gill said.
Central Unified is one of several school districts in Fresno County that is making the overdose medication available on campus. The county superintendent is hoping student-led awareness campaigns can make a difference.
“Even though we’ve had a fentanyl prevention campaign for an excess of five years, it’s still a problem, and the fact that our students have inserted their voice into this narrative if you will; this messaging is critical and I think it’s going to make a difference,” said Michele Cantwell-Copher, the Superintendent of Fresno County Schools.
