Oregon City School District Approves Naloxone For In-School Use

OREGON CITY, OR —On July 21, 2020, Michelle Stroh found her son, Keaton. He was dead. He'd been taking Oxycontin as he recovered from an injury.

The day before, he'd bought three pills from someone in the park and took one.

The medical examiner determined that the pill that he'd taken was laced with fentanyl, a synthetic drug that law enforcement officials consider a poison because of the amount of deaths that result from its consumption.

Stroh, who is a member of the Oregon City School Board, has told people that her son's death wasn't an overdose as some refer to it, it was a poisoning.

As a member of the school board, she realized that she could push to do something.

Those efforts have come to fruition.

The board approved allowing schools to keep Naloxone, also known as Narcan, on hand. In addition to keeping it at schools, the district will have it on hand at the football stadium.

"This is a life-saving policy," Stroh said. "It's a way to get ahead of the problem and I thank my fellow board members for approving it. We are focusing on prevention.

"The school district and its community partners are kicking off an awareness effort to inform parents of the risks of fake pills containing deadly fentanyl."

Clackamas County Public Health says that the number of confirmed fentanyl deaths in the county rose 89 percent – to 34 from 18 – in 2021 from 2020.

"With spring break almost here, we are encouraging parents to talk to their children about never taking any medicine that did not come from their doctor," Cheryl Sharkey, a nurse with the district says.

"Never take a pill from other people, even a friend or relative."