Emergency response group ready to assist

CPR Certified Teachers

There are many things that go on in our school that we take for granted or even don’t know about to help make it a better and safer place for everyone. The small things like having more handicapped stalls in a bathroom to having more fire extinguishers in easier places to access. Little did we know that we also have a handful of trained staff among us trained for emergency response situations.

There are 16 trained staff members around school that are CPR certified and work together twice a year to practice for any emergency situation that happens at our school. Some of the main situations that they practice for responding to cardiac situations and bleeding, mostly things that aren’t life threatening and need to call emergency services right away.

“I’m required to be in this emergency response group, but it’s voluntary for all the other staff to join if they want. If and when any emergency happens I always bring a principal with me just in case I need any assistance. I’ve had some emergencies where I’ve had to call 911 but no life threatening situations,” school nurse Ashley Bass said.

“I think it’s great that we have teachers that are trained to respond to various situations just in case something does happen because you never really know what to expect,” senior Gwen Davies said.

The training that the staff receives is either taught by the Red Cross or American Heart Association. During the training the members practice being able to respond the quickest and in the best way to control a certain situation.

“This isn’t the first emergency response type group I’ve been in before because I’m an EMT, athletic trainer and fire fighter, so I’ve dealt with many emergency situations. I think this is a great thing that the school is doing because if you don’t practice for something, even something we don’t want happening, you won’t be prepared, and it’s great that the staff can do this all together and learn to control a situation,” Bass said.

Not many students around school know that there are so many trained staff in our midst to respond to our various emergencies, but the one’s that do are very appreciative and feel more secure knowing that we are fortunate enough to have something like this at our school.

“I feel safer knowing that we have staff that are able to respond to whatever goes on and that we don’t have to just rely on waiting on outside emergency personnel to get to us before anything can be done about a situation,” Davies said.