A new training called "Stop the Bleed" is being rolled out in D.C. high schools, aimed at empowering both teachers and students to take safety into their own hands, so they’re better prepared during emergencies.
Dr. Babeck Sarani, chief of trauma and acute care surgery at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., will train DCPS health and PE teachers in the program, which launched after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. According to the American College of Surgeons, more than 2.1 million people have already been trained and learned to Stop The Bleed (STB).
Dr. Sarani said someone who’s bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes, which why these basic stop the bleeding skills can have such an impact.
"The most common cause of preventable death following an injury is bleeding," Sarani said. "And as great a 911 system as we have ... it takes time for the police department, for the fire department to get there. Meanwhile, the person is bleeding, potentially significantly. That's why the first person who can stop the bleeding is the person next to you."
DCPS health and PE teacher Mya Ferguson attended the training and said while her safety class teaches her high school students hands on CPR and basic first aid, this training will empower them to recognize they can jump in and save someone’s life during an emergency.
"Unfortunately, way too many of our students can say they've lost a friend to gun violence or to stabbing deaths," Ferguson said. "We will be able to teach them how to stuff a wound and how to apply pressure, how to use a tourniquet to help stop the bleeding to help increase someone's chance of survival in a lot of different situations."
Ferguson said now her students will have the knowledge, the skills and the tools to jump in and do that and save some lives.
Loudoun County Public Schools also offers STB training to interested staff several times per year.
"Student Health has also presented this training to our Safety and Security staff in collaboration with Inova Loudoun Trauma Nurses," a school system spokesperson said. "Some of our staff have also received Be the Help Until Help Arrives Training (more in depth than STB, based on combat medicine). All of our schools have tourniquets that were donated by Inova Loudoun. They are kept in a fanny bag/kit the staff has been instructed to carry with them every time they leave the health office and they are also with the AED. We have added these items to the supplies we purchase for new schools too."
In Fairfax County, all Office of Safety and Security uniformed officers have been certified in Stop the Bleed, along with all school-based safety and security specialists and assistants. Athletic trainers carry the proper STB equipment in their medical bags to games and practices.
Currently, FCPS staff are not STB trained, but the school district is working with the county health department to "develop a plan for Public Health Nurses to provide training" to staff.
Alexandria Public Schools system said they feel they ahve everything they need already on hand.
"We have supplies, including tourniquets, in each of our clinics, as well as RNs in all buildings to assess and provide emergency treatments, to include bleeding control," an ACPS spokesperson said. "We don’t have, nor are [we]planning to get, specific kits as we believe we have the materials already at hand."