What they don’t teach you in library school

I really think that library schools in Canada need to change their curriculum a bit to include some more useful classes for people who work in public libraries, in things like cleaning up after homeless people, disciplining young offenders, and most importantly, a mandatory education on drugs. I need to know what different drugs smell like (so I can tell what they've been doing in the bathroom), what stoned kids look like (for all the types of drugs, not just weed - I'm pretty good with that one now and besides, it's not as deadly as something like meth), and lately, what to do when a teen nearly overdoses. Yesterday I had a freaky experience when a seemingly good kid, who is an avid reader and really nice girl, came to my manga club and fell over the minute she walked through the door. She was conscious and could talk (sort of), but had very little muscle control, was slurring, crying, sweating and admitted to haven taken about three times as many of her Ativan (that apparently were prescribed for panic attacks) than she was supposed to have taken. Maybe I'm just not good in pressure situations, but I really didn't know what the fuck to do - I gave her some water, sat her down, and went to ask my library assistant what she would do ... we contemplated driving her to the hospital, but then eventually settled on calling her mom to come and do that, because after all, we are not her parents, and if she had been in worse shape we would have just called an ambulance. But I feel like an dumbass because this past Monday the same girl was in the library, acting a little weird, and maybe I should have picked up on the signs at that point, and she might not have gotten to this point of almost overdosing, just to get attention. According to the mom she has done this before, and this depresses me, because she is only 13 and seems like such a good kid ... but I guess any teen can overdose, given the chance. Maybe they couldn't have predicted teen services would be this way, but I really wish there had been some sort of head's up at library school that I might be dealing with such problems as a teen services librarian - I think a little less time should be spent on book talks (which I never do) and more time should be spent on real world problems that teens face in their everyday lives.