For the first time ever, teachers from the Deer Valley Unified School District are being trained to treat gunshot wounds.
Scott Warner, the director of school operations with the district, says first responders, trauma nurses and trauma surgeons trained more than 450 teachers to know how to treat their students in case of a shooting in the classroom.
“Rather than trying to be reactive to some sort of event, we really want to be proactive and so we want our folks [teachers] to have the tools before any bad things happen,” Warner said.
The training is called “Stop the Bleeding” and it was part of a safety summit Warner says he coordinated for the teachers in his district. The summit comes just one week before the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida where 17 people were killed and 17 more injured.
“Our true first responders, our school personnel, our teachers can start mitigating the problems that a mass casualty incident might create,” Warner said.
He teamed up with Tammy Eydeler, who oversees the trauma program at Banner del Webb Medical Center.
Eydeler says if there’s anything she wants teachers to know, it’s knowing how to stop a child from bleeding to death and you can do that by applying pressure to a gunshot wound with anything, like the t-shirt off your back.
“You have the resources available on you at all times… you have one on you right now [t-shirt]… so use your shirt… anything you can find,” said Eydeler.
If you would like training on how to treat a gunshot wound you can email Eydeler at Tamara.Eydeler@bannerhealth.com for more information.