It’s a measure of the power of carfentanil that, even before it has turned up in Butler County, the drug is making waves with emergency responders and school districts.

The substance — an industrial-strength tranquilizer that is 10,000 times more potent than morphine — appeared for the first time in Pennsylvania earlier this month.

Emergency responders and police departments, who are most likely to come in contact with users should carfentanil surface here, have already started beefing up safety precautions to help keep themselves from coming into contact with the drug.

On Monday, Butler School Board members added the district to the list of organizations reacting to the news of carfentanil’s appearance. Board members voted 5 to 4 to suspend a policy — passed in December and yet to be implemented — that would have directed all of the district’s buildings to keep naloxone in stock and train certain employees, starting with school nurses, to use it in the case of an overdose.

It’s a shame to put the brakes on the policy, but board members made the right call in exercising caution.

It’s vital for the district to have protections in place that could help save the life of an overdose victim. But district personnel shouldn’t be put in danger in the pursuit of saving someone else’s life. The presence of carfentanil would make that a real possibility.

There are important revisions board members could make to the policy, to account for the possibility of carfentanil going forward. Those include:

- Explicitly giving employees the right to use their discretion when it comes to the administration of naloxone to an apparent overdose victim. If someone feels they can’t safely administer the antidote, they should be allowed to wait for emergency responders.

- Specifically directing employees to wear protective gear — gloves for sure, and masks if the district deems it necessary — when dealing with an apparent overdose victim.

- Expanding formal training requirements for district personnel to include information about carfentanil.

- Including procedures outlining the duties of security personnel, who might ultimately be trained in the use of naloxone as well.

It’s important to note that this policy never had the full support of all nine board members, so the possibility exists that it is simply tucked away. That’s not the way this matter should be resolved.

Our hope is that the school board revises and then re-implements its naloxone policy, and doesn’t simply let the measure die. It serves as both an important practical measure and a powerful statement of the district’s values.