Montgomery Co. students commended for action in apparent overdose case
A Montgomery County, Maryland, health officer praised the Quince Orchard High School students who acted to help another, who reportedly had an overdose on Tuesday.
“We do want to commend the students,” said Dr. Kisha Davis, referring to the incident Tuesday inside a McDonald’s bathroom across the street from the school.
“From what we hear, they did what they were supposed to do. They called 911; they alerted the authorities; they gave Narcan. And that is the message we want” when it comes to responding to overdoses, Davis said.
Montgomery County schools spokeswoman Jessica Baxter said in an email that she can’t share the specifics of what happened due to student privacy, but she said, “There’s been a lot of work done over the past several months to raise awareness on the dangers of illicit fentanyl.”
The school system has been hosting fentanyl forums with Montgomery Goes Purple, a coalition of county government, school, faith-based organizations and nonprofits. The next forum is scheduled for Saturday at Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville.
Dr. Earl Stoddard, Montgomery County’s assistant chief administrative officer, told reporters in a briefing Wednesday that the state’s Good Samaritan Law “protects any individual, who provides medical assistance to someone who’s in sort of a life and death situation, from being held criminally accountable” in cases such as overdoses.
“People should feel comfortable and safe and protected to intervene,” Stoddard said.
Davis said she is seeing students participate in Narcan training, adding that they are attending the fentanyl forums at the county’s schools.
Training how to administer naloxone, the generic name for Narcan, is offered at the forums, with the Community Opioid Prevention and Education trailer on site.
For more information on the next forum, check out the Montgomery County schools’ website. You can find information on substance abuse use and prevention there, as well.