Crisis management: Handling prescription drug

incidents in schools Phase 4

Crisis management phases

Crisis management is a six-phase process:

Phase 1: Prepare before a prescription drug incident occurs in your school.

Phase 2: Take immediate action when a prescription drug incident occurs.

Phase 3: Communicate with school community members after a prescription drug incident.

Phase 4: Follow up after a prescription drug incident.

Phase 5: Implement disciplinary actions for student(s) involved in a prescription drug incident.

Phase 6: Support and monitor student(s) involved in a prescription drug incident.

The following presentation describes the action steps you should complete in Phase 4. If you would like to review a different phase, please click on the appropriate link above.

Phase 4: Follow up after an incident

In Phase 4, take steps to gather and document information related to the incident, assess the educational and emotional needs of student(s) involved, and refer students to programs and services to address the underlying problems that led to the incident.

There are four action steps you should complete:

Action step 4.1: Conduct a student locker search.

Action step 4.2: Document the incident.

Action step 4.3: Assess student needs.

Action step 4.4: Refer student to school-based and regional support services and external agencies.

Action step 4.1: Conduct a student locker search

School officials have the authority to search all school property at any time without notice, including student lockers, and to seize any property prohibited by law or school policy.

For the safety of other students in your school, you may want to search the lockers of student(s) involved in the incident to ensure that the student(s) does not have any more prescription drugs or other prohibited items on school grounds.

You may also want to factor findings from a locker search when deciding on disciplinary actions.

Refer to your school’s policies and procedures to conduct school property searches.

Action step 4.2: Document the incident

After responding to a prescription drug incident, carefully document the facts about the incident. Refer to the Incident report form handout. Documentation will help you:

• Comply with your school and school district’s requirements.

•Guide future incident response efforts.

• Support a police investigation or legal proceedings.

Refer to your school’s policies and procedures

for documenting school incidents.

We recommend that at minimum, the school security

guard or school resource officer and the principal

prepare incident reports.

Action step 4.2: Document the incident

The school security guard or school resource officer and the principal should write an incident report that includes:

•Who was involved.

•When the incident occurred.

•Where the incident occurred.

•What prescription drug was involved.

• Form of the prescription drug (pill, powder, liquid).

• Student actions or behaviors that alerted staff about the incident.

• Any immediate medical actions taken by school personnel or emergency medical services.

•Whether local law enforcement intervened.

• Findings from the student locker search, if any.

Action step 4.2: Document the incident

The school principal should maintain records of all prescription drug incidents to:

• Share incident history with law enforcement.–Sharing this information may alert law enforcement to prescription drug abuse trends in

local schools.

–Equipped with this knowledge, law enforcement may better coordinate with schools to address the problem of prescription drug abuse in schools.

• Serve as a reference to determine when to call, what to expect, and how to collaborate with law enforcement.

The principal should also work closely with the school district to satisfy district requirements related to school incident documentation.

Action step 4.3: Assess student’s needs

You should consult with school professionals and parents to assess a student’s needs.

Consult school professionals

•Meet with school professionals familiar with the students involved in the incident, including the homeroom teacher, the school counselor, the school nurse, or any other staff member with close knowledge of the student(s).

• Discuss each student’s rule-breaking behavior, character, academic and athletic performance, and socialization to look for patterns.

• Review each student’s academic records. ‒ A sudden decline in academic performance may be a sign of prescription drug abuse.

• Schedule a time for student(s) to meet with the school counselor to determine why student(s) used or gave away prescription drugs without a prescription.

Action step 4.3: Assess student’s needs

Consult parents

• Consult parents to determine whether there are contributing factors, such as access to prescription drugs at home, peer pressure or difficulties at school, or difficulties at home.

‒ Be tactful and respectful.

‒ Do not accuse or make parents feel guilty.

‒ Emphasize that the goal of the conversation is to help their child.

• Advise parents to consult their family doctor, who may:‒ Assess whether their child follows prescription medication directions or requires a

different prescription or dosage, if currently taking any prescription medications.

‒ Recommend substance abuse treatment and offer guidance to secure services.

‒ Recommend strategies for preventing prescription drug abuse at home.

Depending on the severity of the prescription drug incident, refer student(s) involved in the incident to school-based and regional support services and external agencies. Professionals at these organizations can address the underlying problems that may have led to the prescription drug incident.

• Provide a list of local substance abuse, youth service, or mental health programs to parents of student(s) involved in a prescription drug incident.

• If parents obtain substance abuse treatment for the student, work collaboratively with parents and treatment providers to continue the student’s education while in treatment.

–Obtain parents’ signed consent to communicate with treatment providers.

–Determine how the student will keep up with schoolwork if he or she receives inpatient treatment or has to miss school for outpatient treatment.

• Factor any support or treatment services into the disciplinary actions.

Action step 4.4: Refer student to substance abuse support and treatment

Go to Phase 5 to learn about the action steps you should complete to develop a disciplinary action plan based on the severity of the prescription drug incident and the characteristics of each student involved in the incident.

This project has been funded with federal funds from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN271201200032C.