LAWRENCE, Mich.—Van Buren Intermediate School District received a $30,000 grant from Covert Generating Facility to bring CPR and automated external defibrillator training and safety education programs to all students of VBISD as part of the Michigan HEARTSafe Schools Program. The plan is to have the county’s 13 districts complete training by May of 2015.
The initiative is a partnership between the Michigan Department of Education, Michigan Department of Community Health and the American Heart Association as part of the Michigan Alliance for Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death of the Young.
While most school buildings today have at least one Automatic External Defibrillator, or AED on hand, the goal of this initiative is to get more people in those buildings familiar with how to operate it, perform CPR and be able to respond to a possible life or death situation.
For a building to meet a ‘Heart Safe’ designation the following criteria must be met:
- A written cardiac emergency response plan must be reviewed annually.
- Must have a cardiac emergency response team with AED and CPR certification to respond to emergencies during school hours and after-school organized events.
- Requires at least 10% of staff, 50% of coaches and 50% of phys. ed. staff to be certified.
- Must have a sufficient number of AED machines available for use on site.
- Perform at least one cardiac emergency response drill each year.
- All athletic pre-participation screening must be completed with the MHSAA form.
Elsewhere in West Michigan, the following schools have already received the ‘Heart Safe’ designation:
- Allegan County – Fennville Elementary, Middle and High Schools
- Cass County – Cass City Elementary, Junior and Senior High School, Dowagiac Union High School
- Kent County – GR Innovation Central High School, Kent Career Technical Center, and Vocational Center, Cedar Springs High School
