[BHS Etree] MISC: Board Meeting on 6/20 - Support Defibrillators for BHS Student Safety

[BHS etree]

Do not reply to this email, contact Cindy Chang, cjchang at berkeley.edu  

 

COME SUPPORT BHS STUDENT HEALTH SAFETY AT JUNE 20TH BOARD MEETING

 

To all BHS Parents, Teachers, and Staff:

 

Please come to the June 20th Berkeley School Board meeting starting at 7:30 pm to show your support during the Public Comment period for the Placement of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) on our BHS campus.

 

IMPORTANCE OF PORTABLE DEFIBRILLATORS:

AEDs are portable devices that deliver shocks to the heart to help restore normal heart rhythms or restart a stopped heart.  Sudden Cardiac Arrest

(SCA) occurs in one of every 200 high schools annually.  Tragic deaths due to SCA in hs students have occurred in recent years at De La Salle and El Sobrante.  Schools nationwide are installing AEDs because studies have shown that TWICE as many people survive sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) if AEDs and CPR are used, rather than CPR alone. Deaths can be prevented with rapid response and treatment.

 

BHS SITUATION:   The BAF (Berkeley HS Athletic Fund) has been working hard this year to improve, implement and support many programs that concern the health and safety of not only our high school athletes, but ALL of our BHS students, as well as our staff and community visitors.

 

One of these projects is the installation of AEDs on our large campus, which covers 4 city blocks and has limited access onto campus property. Five have already been donated to BHS (at a value of over $10,000), and locations to best meet the needs of our students, staff and visitors have already been identified.  We have developed emergency action and maintenance plans.  We are collecting additional donations to purchase protective wall cabinets where the AEDs will be housed.  We also have arranged First Aid/CPR/AED training at greatly reduced costs for ALL of our BHS coaches, and have also offered these to our teachers and other staff members, on August 28th.  (Over $3000 worth of FREE training donated to us!)

 

BUSD HESITANCY TO IMPLEMENT:   We were initially scheduled to present this project to the School Board as an Agenda Item, but the Superintendent had concerns about potential increased liability and insurance costs IF we installed the AEDs, and therefore took it OFF the agenda.

 

JUNE 20TH SCHOOL BOARD MEETING:   Therefore, our only avenue at this time is to address the Board through the 30-minute public comment period, and appeal to them to express their support to address this project and add this item back onto their agenda for the future Board meeting on September 5.

 

There is no guarantee that my comment card will be chosen, but if as many of us as possible can arrive at 7:15 pm and fill out comment cards, perhaps one will be chosen and we will have at least 3 minutes to address the School Board members on this important issue.  Strength in numbers...

 

Thank you,

 

Cindy J. Chang, MD

BHS Parent

Immediate Past President, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine

(AMSSM)

Chief Medical Officer, US Olympic Team 2012 Family Medicine/Sports Medicine Specialist and Team Physician, UC-Berkeley

 

 

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Pat Anderson, Diane Douglas, Marguerite Fa-Kaji and Lisa Sibony are the parent-volunteer facilitators of the etree; please direct any questions to them at  <mailto:bhs-owner at lmi.net> bhs-owner at lmi.net. 

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