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Two out of three teens who died of an overdose had someone nearby.

Most of the time, nobody did anything. Breathe Clear brings the emergency room into your school so students become the person who acts, taught by an ER nurse who has spent 38 years seeing what happens when nobody does.

See the numbersRun a code yourselfDownload PDF

CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2022.1

67.8%
of teen overdose deaths with a bystander nearby had no response at all. No 911 call. No naloxone. No rescue breaths.
Naloxone was given in only 30.3% of adolescent overdose deaths. CDC MMWR, Tanz et al., 2022.1
84%
of teen overdose deaths involved illicit fentanyl.
1 in 4
had evidence of a counterfeit pill: something that looked real and wasn't.
CDC MMWR, Tanz et al., 2022.1
27%
of teens knew fentanyl was being pressed into fake pills. Most students don't know the pill a friend hands them could kill them.
Georgia Department of Public Health, Overdose Deaths Among Adolescents, Georgia, 2019-2021, citing a 2021 national survey.2
800%
rise in fentanyl overdose deaths among Georgia kids ages 10 to 19, from 2019 to 2021.
Georgia Department of Public Health, 2022.2 Overdose deaths for ages 15-24 fell nationally in 2024, but remain far above where they were before fentanyl. In September 2025, Georgians aged 15 to 24 had the highest rate of overdose emergency visits of any age group, and Gwinnett was among the five highest-rate counties in the state.3
1.43M
middle and high school students vape. 9 in 10 of them use flavors.
FDA, National Youth Tobacco Survey, 2025.4
20,000+
Georgia students were disciplined for vaping in 2023-24, up from about 6,100 four years earlier.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, citing Georgia school discipline data, 2025.5

What an ER nurse sees on a Friday night

Charles Folsom has worked in emergency departments for 38 years. These are his own words, recorded after real shifts. This is the experience Breathe Clear puts in front of students before they ever become his patients.

"Why I intubated a 17-year-old tonight because of hookah."
"Stronger than fentanyl, and it's on the streets."
"How to save someone who is overdosing."

Why the old way doesn't work

Schools have been lecturing about drugs for forty years. The research is clear about what that does.

Zero

D.A.R.E.'s measured effect on youth drug use across studies was essentially none (d = 0.023).6

Worse

Fear-based "Scared Straight" programs increased delinquency compared with doing nothing at all.7

Interactive

Programs where students practice skills and talk with each other consistently outperform lectures.8

So Breathe Clear doesn't lecture and doesn't scare. Students run the emergency themselves.

Students in Breathe Clear shirts working together on a patient while a monitor shows falling oxygen

The emergency room comes to your school

Nurse Charles brings a live patient monitor, training manikins, an AED trainer and naloxone trainers. A student collapses after taking a counterfeit pill. The room has minutes. Every decision the students make moves the monitor, the same way a real body would.

  1. RolesStudents take the jobs a real ER team does, plus the family and friends who are there when it starts.
  2. The codeRecognize the overdose, call 911, give naloxone, breathe for the patient, start CPR and use the AED when the heart stops. About 80 percent of the event is hands-on.
  3. The debriefStudents talk through what it felt like under pressure, how to handle stress without a substance, and where to get help.
Team leaderAirwayCompressionsMedicationsRecorderMonitor911 callerFamilyBystanderRunnerSafety officer
The Run a Code simulation: a decision screen next to a live monitor showing an overdose

Then they keep practicing all year

The Breathe Clear platform runs in any browser, in English or Spanish, with no logins and no student data collected. Six real-world scenarios: a counterfeit pill, a pre-game stimulant stack, a party mix, a hookah lounge, a vape cart from a friend and a kratom shot from a gas station. The clock never stops, just like the real thing.

Try it now

Walk the hallway. Find the patient.

Students walk an emergency department corridor. At every door, a voice briefs them on the case: who the patient is, what they took, what their friends are saying. They decide whether to step in.

A student avatar in scrubs walking down a hospital corridor toward a door marked House Party

What changes when students practice

When young people rehearse an emergency instead of hearing about one, they are far more ready to act. Here is what the research shows.

29% → 80%

High school students confident they could give naloxone, before and after one 20-minute class. 81% said it should be required in school health classes.

Journal of School Health, 2026.9
21% → 45%

Bystander CPR in Denmark after CPR training in schools and national initiatives. Thirty-day survival from cardiac arrest tripled.

JAMA, Wissenberg et al., 2013.10
1.5×

Students in lecture-based classes were 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in active, hands-on classes, across 225 studies.

PNAS, Freeman et al., 2014 (college science).11
Fewer

School programs that build social and refusal skills reduced marijuana use a year or more later, in a review of 51 trials and 127,000 students.

Cochrane Review, Faggiano et al., 2014.12

Every Breathe Clear school gets its own results

Students answer a short anonymous survey before the program and again after. Your school receives a report showing what changed.

  • Can students recognize an overdose?
  • Would they call 911, even if they'd been using?
  • Do they know naloxone won't hurt someone who isn't on opioids?
  • Could they say no and keep their friends?
  • Do they know an adult at school they'd go to?
  • Do they plan to avoid pills that didn't come from a pharmacist?

The opioid crisis can be turned around

Families are frightened, and they should be. But the research on overdose is clear about one thing: when ordinary people are trained and have naloxone in their hands, fewer people die.

46%

lower opioid overdose death rates in Massachusetts communities that trained the most people and handed out naloxone, compared with communities that did none.

BMJ, Walley et al., 2013.13
37%

drop in the overdose death rate for Americans ages 15 to 24 from 2023 to 2024, the largest of any age group, as overdose deaths nationwide fell from 105,007 to 79,384.

CDC National Center for Health Statistics, 2025.3
30.3%

of teens who died of an overdose were given naloxone. The medicine works. Too often, nobody nearby knew to use it.

CDC MMWR, Tanz et al., 2022.1

Every Georgia public school is now required to keep naloxone on hand. Breathe Clear makes sure the students and staff around it know exactly what to do.14

Meet the lead facilitator

Charles T. Folsom Jr.

Charles T. Folsom Jr., RN

Emergency department nurse for 38+ years, MHSA, BSN, PMP and DNP candidate. Founder of Nurse Charles Media (@1NurseCharles) and CEO of IAMNURSE. He leads every live simulation.

Built on American Heart Association BLS and ACLS sequencing and Emergency Nurses Association TNCC standards. Designed for Georgia's required drug and vaping education, and for high school CPR and AED instruction.

Pricing

From one classroom to a whole district. Every option includes the Breathe Clear platform in English and Spanish for the students you serve.

Live simulations

Nurse Charles at your school with the monitor, manikins, AED trainer and naloxone trainers.

$1,000
per session · up to 20 students

Small-group simulation

About 60 minutes. Every student takes a role in the code. Ideal for a health class, team, club or leadership group.

$750
each additional small group, same day

Back-to-back groups

Run several groups of 20 in one visit, class period by class period.

$2,500
per event · up to 120 students

Full live event

About 90 minutes. Teams run the code while classmates watch the monitor, then a full debrief.

$4,000
full school day

All-day visit

Up to four sessions in one day, any mix of small groups and full events.

The platform

The Run a Code simulation, the body section and the overdose response guide, all year, on any device.

$300
per classroom, per year · up to 35 students

Classroom

One teacher's classes for the school year.

$750
per school, per year

Middle school

Every student and staff member at one middle school.

$1,500
per school, per year

High school

Every student and staff member at one high school.

Staff and families

$1,500
per session · half day

Staff training

Teachers, counselors and nurses learn to run the program and respond to an overdose with the school's naloxone.

$3,500
per day

Train-the-trainer

Prepares district health and PE leads to train their own schools.

$1,000
per evening

Parent and family night

What parents need to know about vaping, counterfeit pills and naloxone. Spanish available.

$2,500
per workshop day

Conferences and youth leadership

Workshops for student leadership conferences, coaches and community events.

Packages

$5,000
one school, one year

School package

High school platform license, one full live event, two small-group sessions and the before-and-after results report.

$10,000
two schools, one year

Founding district pilot

Two school packages, plus a half-day staff training free and a combined results report for district leadership.

Custom
three or more schools

District

Licenses across your schools, train-the-trainer and a set number of live events each semester.

Free with every package

Everything a teacher needs to keep Breathe Clear going after we leave the building, at no extra cost.

Classroom curriculum

Five high school lessons and four middle school lessons, about 50 minutes each, built around the simulation.

Teacher guide

How to prepare, run the simulation with a class, talk about substances safely and respond if a student discloses use.

Student workbook and worksheets

Printable activities for every lesson: myth or fact, overdose signs, the 911 script, refusal practice and a personal stress plan.

Georgia standards map

Every lesson matched to Georgia health standards, the annual drug and vaping education rule and high school CPR/AED.

Family materials

A family letter and parent guide in English and Spanish, so the conversation continues at home.

Video library

Short clips from Nurse Charles, matched to each lesson.

Before-and-after survey

An anonymous ten-question survey and a report showing what changed for your students.

English and Spanish

The whole platform, for every student and family.

Live event dates are limited each semester and booked in the order agreements are signed. Travel is included within 50 miles of Atlanta; beyond that, travel is billed at cost. Prices are per school year. Participation does not certify students in CPR; for certification, use an authorized American Heart Association or Red Cross course.

Be the school where somebody acts.

Tell us about your students and your schedule. We'll set up a call with Nurse Charles and plan the right program for your school.

Email partnerships@nursecharlesmedia.comRequest a sessionDownload PDF