Every school in Milwaukee Public Schools now has naloxone on hand, the result of a father's decade-long grief turning into a districtwide safety effort. George Moore, whose son George Moore IV died of an accidental overdose in 2016, has worked to equip schools with 500 overdose-resource kits that are now in the hands of MPS principals across the city.
A Father's Mission Becomes District Policy
Moore's push to arm schools with naloxone culminated this week when his foundation partnered with the district to place the kits in every building, according to WISN. Moore's son grew up in New Berlin and developed an addiction in high school after being prescribed opioids for a sports injury, according to the same report. He died in 2016 at age 28, and his father has said his family is turning the loss into something good for the community.
The kits themselves contain more than just naloxone. According to WTMJ, the supplies include Narcan, CPR masks, gloves, fentanyl test strips, Diposerx, instructions for administering the medication, and a hotline number for addiction support. Moore's foundation provided the kits, and the station reports the district said the rollout will come with additional staff training, though specifics on who will lead that training have not been detailed.
Zero Deaths, But District Calls Move Preventative
Milwaukee Public Schools has reported zero student overdose deaths on school campuses over the past decade, the station's report notes, and district officials describe the kit distribution as a proactive, preventative step rather than a response to a crisis inside school walls. Milwaukee County figures cited in local reporting show opiate overdose deaths broadly declining and involving few children, even as naloxone use by first responders remains common across the county.
Milwaukee County EMS personnel administered naloxone more than 5,800 times in 2023, per the same WTMJ account. A newer county dashboard reported separately by CBS 58 found 450 confirmed overdoses and 5,450 suspected non-fatal overdoses countywide in 2024, with officials describing a significant decline in overdose deaths overall, though the dashboard does not establish whether that drop reflects fewer overdoses or wider access to harm-reduction supplies like naloxone. CBS 58 also reported that while most age groups saw declines, overdoses rose significantly among Black men ages 55 to 79.
A Second Family's Grief Joins the Effort
Moore isn't working alone. Katie Schumacher, who lost her brother Kevin to an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2020, now volunteers to help distribute the naloxone kits to schools, according to WISN's reporting. Schumacher has said her own grief and her passion for education became part of the project, channeling a personal loss into the same push that has defined Moore's foundation.
That foundation is also working on legislation in the Wisconsin State Legislature that would require overdose kits in all public schools statewide, per the WISN report, extending the Milwaukee rollout into a broader state mandate. A related state proposal, Senate Bill 206, was described in legislative records as relating to maintaining a supply of a usable opioid antagonist at a school, and would require public and private schools to stock naloxone or a similar antagonist in an accessible place, according to Wisconsin Legislature documents. Separately, 2023 Wisconsin Act 194 provided civil immunity to certain elementary and secondary schools, school personnel and medical professionals who provide or administer an opioid antagonist, according to the enacted legislation.
Costs, Training Rules and a Statewide Pattern
Each kit comes at a cost of $200, Moore has said in reporting by Fox 11, which also found that the Oshkosh Area School District has added Overdose Aid Kits to all of its middle and high school buildings while Green Bay reported having one donated kit with Narcan on-site at all of its schools. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction notes there is no dedicated state funding for schools to purchase naloxone, and encourages districts to pursue donated supplies instead, according to a DPI FAQ document. The agency's guidance also says school districts may submit training materials to the State School Nurse Consultant for DPI approval, with approved courses expected to teach staff how to identify a possible overdose, recognize naloxone as the antidote, and understand how to administer it.
Milwaukee's move mirrors steps already taken elsewhere in Wisconsin and beyond. The Denmark School District and the School District of Beloit had already installed Narcan supplies ahead of any statewide requirement, according to Wisconsin Public Radio, which also reported that the University of Wisconsin System has installed naloxone distribution boxes on 11 of its 13 campuses. Major school districts in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Dallas and Denver have similarly stocked overdose-response materials on school grounds, per WTMJ's reporting, placing Milwaukee's rollout within a wider national trend among large urban districts.
For Moore, the kits now sitting in Milwaukee's school offices represent years of advocacy rooted in a single loss. With several naloxone kits now available at every Milwaukee Public Schools building, district officials and the foundation behind the effort say the supplies could make a lifesaving difference for students or staff in a critical moment, even as the broader legislative push for a statewide requirement continues to take shape.
