Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton hosted a Narcan training workshop at Glen Cove High School on Friday, June 6, as part of a wellness day for the school’s graduating seniors.
The event, in partnership with the Office of the Nassau County Executive and Nassau County’s Department of Human Services, aimed to teach students how to spot the signs of an opiate overdose, how to administer intranasal Naloxone to reverse an overdose and informed them about new approaches to treating addiction. Each participant was provided a Narcan kit upon completing their training.
In addition to hearing from the county mental health office’s Coordinator of Education and Training, Calle Panakos, students heard directly from a woman whose family has suffered the devastation wrought by the ongoing opioid and fentanyl crises.
Corinne Kaufman’s granddaughter, Paige Gibbons, died on Nov. 20, 2022, just four days after her 19th birthday, after she consumed a small piece of what she thought was a Percocet pill at a sleepover with friends. It turned out to be entirely fentanyl, and she died later that night.
“Opioid drugs are continuing to cause tremendous devastation in colleges across America – and the unthinkable loss that Corinne’s family has endured is a tragic reminder that we must remain unwavering in our efforts give our youth tools to protect themselves and others,” DeRiggi-Whitton said.
In the aftermath of Paige’s tragic death, Kaufman has launched the Families Against Fentanyl campaign and is advocating for Narcan kits to be available in every middle and high school nurse’s office on Long Island.
She has also urged Nassau County to distribute fentanyl test strips by bundling them with Narcan kits and distributing them directly to all who seek them and spoken at the Legislature on numerous occasions to urge the County administration to greatly increase the rate at which nearly $100 million in opioid lawsuit settlement funds are distributed to local agencies delivering treatment, recovery and prevention resources.
“I am thankful to Calle Panakos for sharing her knowledge with all of our attendees, and I will forever be in awe of Corinne Kaufman’s strength and determination to make a difference in memory of her beloved granddaughter Paige. I hope this workshop was an eye-opening experience for Glen Cove’s graduating seniors,” DeRiggi-Whitton said.
