School shooting fears: Central Regional aims to raise $56K for wound kits in classrooms

BERKELEY - A shot is fired. A student is hurt. A teacher runs to her desk and grabs a first aid kit equipped with gauze that triggers the student's blood to clot, a tourniquet to slow the bleeding, and patches to seal wounds. The teacher's actions buy time for first responders to arrive and helps to save that student's life.

It is a scenario Superintendent Michelle CarneyRay-Yoder hopes never happens in the Central Regional School District, but in a time where attacks on schools occur with discomforting regularity, she wants to be prepared.

Her administration is asking community members and parents to donate toward a $56,000 initiative that aims to put wound kits into every classroom into Central Regional School District, as well as high-traffic areas such as the cafeteria and gymnasium.

"We come from a proactive place," said CarneyRay-Yoder. "We just want to make sure that we're setting our schools up for success, in addition to providing as much safety and security for our students and our staff-ulty (staff and faculty) … that we can in order to never have to use it."

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At roughly $250 a piece, the wound kits carry enough emergency supplies to treat five injured people.

The effort is part of a program called Survive+ For Schools, a New Jersey-based nonprofit organization that is focused on increasing safety for students in the wake of school shootings across the nation.

Founder Stewart Krentzman said the lessons learned from school shootings in places like Uvalde, Texas, and Parkland, Florida, led to the realization that having wound-staunching kits at hand was integral to raise survival rates from such attacks.

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"The data has basically shown us that if we could get wound care to staff and to kids sooner, there's a 20% better chance of survival," said Krentzman, a retired business man and grandfather who is concerned about student safety.

"When you do the math, we're dealing with about $4 a student over five years," he said. "I don't know what better investment to try and keep a child alive than $4."

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The average time in the country for first responders to respond to an emergency call is seven to nine minutes; however, the victim of a gunshot wound or other serious trauma can bleed out and die in as little as three to five minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website.

Though many schools have wound kits, they are often stored in a nurse's office and are not readily accessible during a school lockdown or emergency that limits movement between classrooms.

When minutes matter, having access to materials that staunch bleeding is a matter of life or death, Krentzman said. About 40% of trauma-related deaths worldwide are the result of bleeding, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

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Despite quick police response, people are still bleeding out and dying in school attacks in the minutes before first responders reach them, said Robert Baran, director of emergency services in Manchester. Baran also sits on board of advisors for Survive+ For Schools.

"We went and custom developed these kits, based on the medicine that's out there," Baran said. "We get a lot of this type of medicine from, obviously, war zones."

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Inside CarneyRay-Yoder's office, Baran demonstrated how the kit works. He tied a tourniquet around a silicon "wound," stuffed it with gauze equipped with blood-clotting chemicals, and showed how large adhesive seals could help staunch bleeding.

Since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, Berkeley police have kept a steady presence around Central Regional's two schools, said Police Chief Kevin Santucci. The district has also hired retired police officers to provide added security, he said.

The wound kits are "a tool that you obviously never want to have to use," Santucci said. "But in the event that you do, it's like your airbag in your car. … It's there to protect you."

Baran said the kits will also be useful outside of a worst-case scenario attack: for example, in treating playground accidents, parking lot mishaps or shop class injuries.

CarneyRay-Yoder said she hopes to have each classroom equipped by September and have staff trained by the end of the summer.

"The whole intent is to never have to use it, but you can never be too prepared," the superintendent said.

To donate, visit www.wearecrsd.com or https://survivalplusforschools.org/donations/central-regional-school-district/.

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 16 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: School shooting fears prompt Central Regional to buy wound kits