Each year, a week before school begins, teachers report back to school for professional development and training. One morning of training was hosted by the school Nurse, Duke Denton. Training began with a video on how to stop bleeding. This is a national program from The American College of Surgeons STOP THE BLEED. This program is designed to instruct people on life saving solutions and how to stop bleeding in a severely injured person. The participants were also instructed on use of the defibrillator. Then, instead of a boring sit and get, this year, Nurse Duke had training stations set up in the gym. Teachers, substitutes and support staff were put into groups and rotated to each station.
The first station was Nurse Duke demonstrating how to pack a wound. Second station was Title 1 Teacher Mike Riepl demonstrating CPR compressions on adults and infants. School Resource Officer John Rakestraw had station 3 where he instructed everyone on how to properly apply a tourniquet. Station 4 was Superintendent Dr. Chris Conyac's station. In this station, Dr. Conyac went over all the questions you would be asked should you need to call 911. The final station was covered by Title 1 Reading Teacher, Heather Riepl. In Mrs. Ripels station, participants were taught the proper use of administering an EPIPen and the proper use of an inhaler.
This training day took a lot of planning and leading by Nurse Duke. This is all extremely vital information for school staff; vital information that we hope to never use. However, thanks to Nurse Duke and his goal for the staff to learn life saving measures, everyone is more equipped should they ever need to put their new knowledge into action.