Each day in
Arizona, over one million children attend our
public schools – schools with nearly 100,000 staff members,
of which over 50,000 are classroom teachers. Our state routinely
addresses a myriad of student issues ranging from academic
achievement to the security and safety of our school
facilities. However, we have not addressed a fundamental health
and safety issue for students at all levels:
the availability of trained CPR/First Aid responders within the school
itself. Yet, we have learned it's important to
many teachers.
Educators
participating in a Red Coss focus group cited many reasons for
getting teachers trained in CPR and First Aid. Those
reasons include an increase in the number of students taking
regular medication as well as more students with food
allergies and asthma. Also, classes are larger and there are
fewer staff members. Thirty-five percent of the
educators in the focus group have already responded to an
emergency on campus.
Now, with a
$100,000 grant from Walmart the Red Cross will train 30
school staff members to become certified Red Cross
instructors. Those Red Cross trainers will teach 40
colleagues lifesaving skills. After the course of a year 1,200
Arizona teachers will be certified in Red Cross CPR and
First Aid.
