Schools to offer opioid abuse presentations

Crook County School District (CCSD) will be hosting events to help kids avoid the dangers of opioid addiction, thanks to grant funding through the county.

According to Superintendent Mark Broderson, an incident took place on the Moorcroft campus in early October and “opioids were part of that problem”.

This generated a conversation with principals across the district about possible ways to prevent opioid abuse from impacting the kids of Crook County in the future.

On hearing that the county has funding available, Curriculum Director Melissa Ruml submitted an application for $8400.

This will fund presentations at all the high schools in December from Vive18, an organization that provides a drug prevention platform that helps youth make educated decisions.

The program is proactive, said Crook County Prevention Specialist Katie Allen, rather than reacting to a problem once it has developed.

“It’s all about catching the kids before they fall in the water and we scoop them out not realizing the bridge upstream is broken,” she said.

The grant itself is intended for local organizations involved in combatting the opioid addiction crisis and the funding for them comes from a large-scale class action lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that were involved in supplying opioids.

The lawsuit included all the pharmaceutical supply chain participants who contributed to the opioid epidemic, which in turn harmed the people and communities of the State of Wyoming.

The funding will not all come in at once, according to County Attorney Joe Baron, because the lawsuit involves numerous separate entities, each of which will pay over a different amount of time.

The OneWyo Opioid Settlement is part of a nationwide settlement and is eventually expected to net somewhere between $82,000 and $150,000 for this county.

The county commissioners signed a resolution in 2021 to accept the statewide settlement agreement and receive the associated funds.

At this time, according to County Clerk Melissa Jones, just under $45,000 is available in the fund.

Broderson and Ruml presented their application to the commissioners last week, explaining that the presentations will be in the form of an assembly for staff, students and parents.

An additional presentation will be offered for staff to assist them in protecting kids from opioids; for example, it will teach them the signs to watch out for that opioid abuse may be occurring.

Commissioner Fred Devish commented that he would like to see the parental involvement element stressed. Something like this, he said, would give parents “the tools in their toolbox” to be able to spot problems and help their children avoid the dangers of opioid addiction.

Broderson confirmed that, as well as being invited to the assemblies, parents will be able to access videos from Vive18 with content related to this topic.

Commissioner Bob Latham asked that the sports coaches be invited to participate. He pointed out that coaches spend a lot of time with the kids and may also be in a position to see issues forming early if, for example, an athlete is injured and given painkillers.

As the commissioners voted to approve the grant, Devish welcomed Broderson and Ruml to return if there are other steps that can be added to the program for which the county could offer additional funding.