COLUMBUS, OH (WZMQ) – New research is revealing a surprising trend when it comes to the number of elementary through high school students intentionally exposing themselves to substances at school.
And the data is prompting a warning to both parents and school officials.
When studying the number of intentional substance exposures happening at u-s schools, researchers discovered something they weren’t expecting.
“What surprised us was the age shift,” said Dr. Hannah Hays, chief of toxicology, Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Hannah Hays with Nationwide Children’s Hospital is a co-author of this study, which went through nearly 25 years of poison center data, finding more than 122-thousand intentional substance exposures at schools in students ages six to 18.
Between 2000 and 2024, those exposure rates increased by more than 287 percent among elementary school students, and nearly 112 percent in that time period for middle school children.
However, that rate decreased by more than 4 percent for high school students.
“In the youngest children, exposures were led by cosmetics and personal care products, arts, crafts, office supplies, plants, and things like foreign bodies and toys. In high school age, analgesics and stimulants, and street drugs led that list,” said Dr. Hays.
While Hays says the intentional substance exposure rate among younger children increased, it’s the high school students who were much more likely to have serious medical outcomes.
Hays says this data should prompt parents to talk about substance use and mental health in a non-judgmental way, earlier, and to secure medications at home, and limit access to both prescription and over-the-counter medicine.
Hays says schools also need to be part of the solution.
Dr. Hays says for schools, this trend isn’t solved with punishment alone. She says schools are structured, supervised environments where prevention, early identification, substance use education, and mental health screening can occur.
The paper also specifically supports not only having naloxone available in schools.
But also having personnel trained in using it in the event of an overdose.
