New Rochelle High School Introduces Innovative Narcan Vending Machines

Written By: Robert Cox

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (April 1, 2023) — The City School District of New Rochelle has become the first public school system in the country to place Narcan vending machines in all of their schools.

The installation of a dozen self-serve Narcan dispensaries at 10 schools — the high school will have 3 while the other 9 schools will have one each — was prompted by an incident January 9, 2023.

Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond announced that a student at New Rochelle High School came close to dying that day following what was a suspected Fentanyl overdose.

“Our nursing staff had to use Narcan to save a student who vaped what the student believed to be marijuana,” said Raymond in a statement. “The vape almost cost that student their life.”

The nurses at New Rochelle High School were honored at a New Rochelle Board of Education meeting and by Westchester County Executive George Latimer at a ceremony in White Plains, NY.

The Narcan will be sold in single-use containers for $1.00 each and five-packs for $4.00.

The vending machines will accept payment in cash, coins, credit cards and Apple Pay.

New Rochelle Schools Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond is excited about the Narcan vending machines.

“I encourage all parents to give their children a dollar so they can obtain their own Narcan at any of our schools,” Raymond said. “Everyone is eligible to receive it, and you simply never know when you might need it to save a life, even your own.”

“We have been unable to address students vaping fentanyl-laced drugs in our hallways and bathrooms, admitted New Rochelle Board of Education President William Ianuzzi. “By making naloxone spray readily available, even to Kindergartners, we can rapidly reverse the effects of opioid overdoses which have become increasingly common in our schools.”

RELATED:

A Primer on Fentanyl Overdoses and Related Toxicology – Introduction

No Opioids Found in Vaping Student Given Narcan at New Rochelle High School, Police Say

REAX:

Here are a few of our favorite reactions to readers who took this article at face value. Names removed to protect the guilty.


…if your kid’s school needs it, maybe you need a new school?


WTF! That is just weird and demented.


I am dying anyone got a dollar. Na, sorry man spent it on Cheez-its.


For God’s sakes. These people are sick.


wow. just wow.


They should put a condom dispensing machine next to it.


When did they announce the vending machine? Yesterday?


April fools? Or is this real. I can’t imagine selling this to a kindergartener!


This doesn’t represent a solution but a problem.


OMG… what the actual F!!


That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen since the crack pipe kits


Until a bunch of kids go around stabbing each other with narcan injectors.


What if you don’t have $1?


Are you kidding me SMFH so that’s like telling your kids it’s ok if you want to do drugs you have a vending machine of narcan.


Wow! I don’t even know what to say!


The dumpster fire in NR continues.


WOW!


Ridiculous, giving kids a easy way out so they can just get high again. How about Getting them the help they really need. This city is a disgrace!


Is this real or an April Fools joke in incredibly poor taste?


How absurd. This BOE is insane.


The machines should probably send an alarm to the Nurse’s office.


Selling something that is given for free, along with the wrong message.


This is literally an April fools joke. This is not true or valid. How anvone could believe this is beyond me.


Yes, let’s encourage our kids to do drugs


Why not a bulletproof vest machine?


Innovative government. Flood our environment with a disease, charge for the cure.


So if someone is overdosing, are we looking for our debit card or breaking the glass ? 🤔


Do kindergarteners carry cash these days? Or do they do Zelle?


What the hell is this?


You are a real jerk.


Don’t worry kids, do your drugs just be sure you have a dollar on you.


Can you imagine inserting your card and having continuous chip malfunctions ?!


The amount of people that will fall for this is the real story here.


This is more of a promotion to for drug use rather then a deterrent.


This better be a April Fools Joke and if so u need to grow up Robert Cox 😡😡


EDITOR’S NOTE 4/2/23: For those who did not notice this story was published on April 1… April Fools!!! 🤣

READ: THE DAY AFTER: Narcan Vending Machines and April Fools

A tongue-in-cheek story on 4/1/23, my serious but hopefully humorous-to-most take on a very deliberate real fake fentanyl story on 1/9/23 put out by the New Rochelle Schools Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond, is about as good a satire of Raymond’s fake fentanyl narrative as I could imagine: a fake narcan narrative of my own.

For those joining us from around the country courtesy of Rasmussen Reports or otherwise new to the story, the New Rochelle Superintendent, in a disgraceful and ongoing fraud, whipped up a frenzy over a supposed vaping/fentanyl story to distract the public from a simultaneous announcement to the school board that he was walking out on his 3-year contract after just 18 months leading to the hiring last month of the District’s record-shattering 8th Superintendent in 9 years. Despite knowing within hours that there was no fentanyl involved, and a police investigation that concluded the same thing in less than 18 hours, Raymond actively pushed his fake fentanyl narrative, appearing twice on national TV (Fox & Friends, Inside Edition), giving numerous interviews and allowing television news crews into the high school to interview the nurses involved and roam the corridors and nurses offices — even weeks later. The guy is utterly shameless.

The low point was a press conference held by Westchester County Executive George Latimer to give the school’s medical staff proclamations for “saving” a student’s life by administering Narcan even though everyone in the room, including the press, knew there were no opioids involved (Narcan only works on opioids) and the entire tale was a big, fat fraud. To this day, new versions of the Superintendent’s fake fentanyl narrative continue to be published.

An exchange (below) on a local Facebook Group (Concerned Parents of New Rochelle) aptly sums up the attitude of school officials and community members. A member of the group posted a link to this story moments after it was published, clearly indicating the obvious, it is an April’s Fools gag. William Ianuzzi, the New Rochelle Board of Education President, the same guy lampooned in this article, felt compelled to declare: “this is fake”.

Two thoughts on that.

First, “duh!”

Second, this is the first time he has ever publicly commented on the fake fentanyl narrative that he and other school officials have been perpetrating for months but rather than address his lies he declares as “fake” an April Fool’s article satirizing those lies.

Try looking in the mirror Mr. Board President.

If Ianuzzi’s Facebook comment comes across as a bit annoyed, perhaps it is because this widely-circulated article prompted numerous angry phone calls from outraged parents and other residents to school board members. As the comment below his suggests, the reason so many people believed the headline is because for many, given the track record of the school board over the years, it seemed entirely plausible that they very well might have approved Narcan vending machines in the schools. Some have even suggested that this April Fool’s article might — in a case of life imitating art — give the board the idea that maybe they should install Narcan vending machines in the schools.

Instead of doubling-down on their fake fentanyl narrative perhaps school officials in New Rochelle might consider coming clean and just admit what is now widely known and accepted as fact: that they lied when they claimed a student overdosed at New Rochelle High School on January 9, 2023 by vaping marijuana laced with fentanyl. It never happened.

If not, maybe next April 1, we will have a new headline:

NEW ROCHELLE SCHOOL OFFICIALS APOLOGIZE FOR FAKE FENTANYL NARRATIVE

On second thought, strike that. For an April Fool’s headline to work, it had to have a patina of believability. No reader is going to believe the New Rochelle Board of Education would ever admit lied.

BONUS COVERAGE: WVOX RADIO reports this article as real. Caller Anthony Galletta explains to hosts Dennis Nardone and Miss Tonny.

One thought on “New Rochelle High School Introduces Innovative Narcan Vending Machines”

Comments are closed.