About the emergency response at Summit Atlas

| West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS breaking news

4:08 PM: Thanks for the tips about an SPD/SFD response at Summit Atlas, the charter middle/high school at 35th/Roxbury. We went over to check. Police were about to leave and told us that it was only a medical response and in the end, they weren’t needed. Tweets By Beat classifies the initial call as a possible overdose. We’re checking further with SFD, as the crew on scene was busy, so we don’t know yet whether a student was involved; a medic unit was originally dispatched (along with Ladder 13, which is what you see in our photo) but was dismissed within a few minutes of arrival.

4:14 PM: SFD spokesperson David Cuerpo says their crew treated a 17-year-old girl who was taken to Children’s Hospital by private ambulance. She was in stable condition when transported.

Summit Parent January 20, 2023 (5:46 pm)

For a medical emergency that response was intense. I picked up my middle schooler and there were so many police cars and no answers from the staff. I don’t know the protocol for response, but I think they should set some expectations on what it is with the parents. By the number of police cars, it looked like it could have been something involving many students and much worse. My expectation for a medical response would be a fire truck and an aid car and/or maybe one police car.

Flo B January 20, 2023 (6:33 pm)

The policy is to send more than may be needed and then cancel as the situation dictates. If they didn’t send a lot and more were needed they would be called out for not meeting expectations that they would send enough units to start with to handle the situation.
ltfd January 20, 2023 (7:27 pm)

The response to an emergency will always be based on the information that SPD & SFD have regarding an incident, following prescribed procedures. Your expectations are not part of the algorithm.
- Summit Parent January 20, 2023 (10:38 pm)
  
  ltfd chill. I didn’t say my expectations were part of any algorithms. What I said was I didn’t know what the protocol is. And I think it’s entirely fair to ask of the school and first realize what types of response to expect when we just had a shooting at one of other local high schools.
Casual observer January 20, 2023 (10:26 pm)

The police department has officers that are EMTs as well. In this case, an officer arrived within only minutes of the call and administered narcan to a student overdosing. The kid was waking as the fire truck arrived. That ain’t my kid, but I’m sure glad we have officers willing to step up to provide care in an emergency, especially with children involved.
- Summit Parent January 21, 2023 (10:30 am)
  
  That’s amazing about the police having EMT credentials. Overall, I think it’s a wake up call (for at me at least) that this can happen anywhere. Since my child is in middle school, I haven’t been thinking about this. She’s still into jumping on trampolines and sleepovers. My oldest is in high school, so I’m much more aware. There is a free ordering service for narcan in WA. I ordered it for my middle schooler. I think our community needs to lean in more to be prepared for these circumstances. Luckily, the OD happened at school with enough people to save her life. The one that happened up at Safeway on California wasn’t so lucky.
  - Carry it in backpack? January 21, 2023 (1:22 pm)
    
    Ok, do you mean that you except your middle schooler to carry around Narcan in their backpack??
    - WS Res January 21, 2023 (5:01 pm)
      
      Why not? We’ve been teaching first aid skills and the “be prepared” motto to Boy and Girl Scouts for decades.
- ACG January 21, 2023 (11:51 am)
  
  Thank goodness the officer was able to be there so quickly and administer the narcan. I hope the student recovers okay and can get support to help prevent this from happening again. My thoughts are with the other students that were at school. That must have been scary to see.
Zipper January 21, 2023 (10:36 am)

Maybe that’s something that all parents and people who pick up students from your school need to ask about when it comes to expectations of emergency! Maybe it something you should have asked about before an emergency occurred and should be in the school handbook. Also you need to ask the school do they have NARA con to give to people who might be in the school that overdosed on drugs!

sam-c January 20, 2023 (6:25 pm)

In reading about the response, I am guessing this is not why there were helicopters in that vicinity (hard to tell from here)?

WSB January 20, 2023 (7:44 pm)

Don’t know anything about helicopters at that time but no, this is definitely not the kind of thing that would draw a law-enforcement helicopter response.

WET January 21, 2023 (10:48 am)

Hugs to all parents with struggling teens. This is hard!

jc January 21, 2023 (6:58 pm)

Hugs to all the struggling teens as well.

WTAF January 21, 2023 (3:16 pm)

Since when does the WSB chase ambulances? And why are we posting a student (maybe a minor?)’s medical emergency on a blog? Privacy should be considered. This includes people who were there and are sharing- have a sense of community- protect your own.

WSB January 21, 2023 (3:56 pm)

Hi, thanks for your question. We have been covering community news for 15 years here (following 30 years in TV, newspapers, and radio) and that includes sizable police/fire responses in a variety of circumstances, particularly when they happen at schools, and/or at highly visible locations. This one wasn’t on our radar until a deluge of text and other messages asking why police and fire were at the school. We don’t publish names or other specifics (we didn’t say, nor do we know, whether the person involved is a student) but we do publish basic information. – TR
Flo B January 21, 2023 (4:40 pm)

WTAF. WSB’s job is to inform WS what’s is (or isn’t) happening here on the peninsula. They do a great job. As far as “privacy” goes if you truly have a concern then you should lobby to have ALL media-tv;radio;newspapers;blogs;internet banned. What gets me shaking my head is that all those demanding “privacy” would be the FIRST to blast media for not reporting something. Pretending bad things don’t happen doesn’t prevent them.
Alki_Neighbor January 21, 2023 (5:34 pm)

WTAF: West Seattle Blog could not be further away from an
ambulance chaser. I do not know of a more ethical and caring
presence that reports on what is going on in a community. They espouse the
trilogy of whether things are true, kind, necessary.

I, and I know others, hope the person who went
through this trauma is recovering and that they somehow know the community they
live in offers support and love. Peace Out.

Hollye Bondurant January 22, 2023 (11:13 am)

We need to advocate for training of all teachers, staff, and students at our schools not just select staff. It’s easy to get Narcan free in our state. Make it part of your emergency supply kit. Emergency response still has to be called as Naloxone is short acting but it is a lifesaving tool.https://doh.wa.gov/you-and-your-family/drug-user-health/overdose-education-naloxone-distributionI got my kit at Kelly-Ross mailed to me. https://www.kelley-ross.com/polyclinic/ll/

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