School employees to receive training on life-saving devices

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — Students aren’t the only ones heading to the classroom in Van Buren County this school year.

All employees at Clinton, South Side Bee Branch and Shirley school districts will receive training on how to use automated external defibrillators.

Cliff Bartlett, an emergency medical technician with Southern Paramedic Services, spearheaded the effort to make sure each school had immediate access to these life-saving devices.

“I’ll be training every faculty member from custodians to bus drivers to board members and superintendents on how to use them,” Bartlett said.

Billy Jackson, superintendent for the South Side Bee Branch School District, said although their district already has an AED, it is an older model.

“We’ve never had to use it, thank the lord. I am tickled to death to be receiving two more.

You can’t mess up with these.

It will either tell to shock them or not to shock them,” Jackson said.

Bartlett said he would be conducting several classes throughout the year at each school so all employees know how to use the AEDs.

“Before long, they’re going to be everywhere, and it is a huge advantage if you know how to use one,” Bartlett said.

AEDs are used to restore normal heart rhythm to people in cardiac arrest.

Chesapeake Energy spent $8,100 to buy six of the devices so each school could have two.

One AED will be kept in the school nurse’s office and the other will be at sporting events.

“Most people don’t realize that children can go into cardiac arrest, just like adults. I hope the AEDs stay in a box and never have to be used, but it provides a sense security to know that we now have them,” Bartlett said.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 136 on 08/10/2008