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Boardman students learn how to “Stop the Bleed”
BOARDMAN
Nearly 200 Boardman High School students received the training credited with saving three lives in the aftermath of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27.
“Stop the Bleed” is a national program that aims to teach civilians how to control bleeding and to make these skills as commonplace as cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
After the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, the American College of Surgeons developed “Stop the Bleed” in collaboration with the medical community, federal government and EMS organizations.
After more than two dozen Boardman staff members received the training in September, district administration decided to offer it to ninth-graders in health class.
“Their thought process was if we train our ninth-graders, they’re going to be in our building for four years, and so we will have students trained throughout our entire building should anything happen,” trainer Amanda Lencyk, Mercy Health trauma coordinator, said Wednesday.
During the training, she showed students how and when to apply a tourniquet and pack a wound. Without intervention, she said, a wounded individual could die from blood loss in as little as three minutes.
While the training was developed in response to mass shootings, the trainers made clear the techniques are appropriate for injuries that occur at work, at home, or a car accident.
“I have a tourniquet in my purse. I have one in my car. You can buy them on Amazon. It’s very practical, very simple, but literally life-saving,” said ER clinical pharmacist Natalie Rine.
When asked if he would feel comfortable putting his new skills to use, sophomore Marco Stilliana said, holding a tourniquet, “If I had one of these around me, 100 percent.”
Boardman is the first area school district to offer the training to students, but Lencyk thinks others will follow its lead.
“My hope is that other districts look at this and say, ‘Hey our students can do this. Our students absolutely can jump in to save others.’ It’s not only empowering the students but also the administration to know they have these type of people in their school district,” Lencyk said.