‘Stop the Bleed’ a life-saving lesson

Schenectady school, fire department want staff disaster-ready

SCHENECTADY — The school district’s head of security and the city fire chief want the employees entrusted with keeping schools safe to be ready for the worst scenarios — including injuries that can cause life-threatening blood loss.

“We all need to be ready so that if one day there’s a shooting in a school or shooting anywhere,” Schenectady Fire Chief Don Mareno said last week after giving school district red shirts, as the security staff is known, a crash course on basic life-saving skills to stop or control bleeding when a person is injured or wounded in any circumstance.

The local initiative, a partnership with the school district, is called ‘Stop the Bleed,’ which is a national program administered by The American College of Surgeons.

The group’s website indicates that a person who is bleeding profusely can bleed to death in as little as five minutes.

“The people that are going to be able to help are the people that are right there at the time, bystanders, citizens, so in a major bleed, someone does a quick thing like a tourniquet, it could save somebody’s life,” Mareno added.

Jeff Russo, the district’s director of Climate and Safety, said he views the red shirts as first responders.

“We want to be able to treat injuries as quick as we can in any kind of situation,” he said, explaining that they discussed how the safety team can be outfitted with proper equipment, such as tourniquets, to be able to respond in emergency situations where stemming blood loss is imperative.

Dozens of red shirts as part of a professional development day last week listened to Mareno talk about basic life-saving skills and techniques, including how to apply direct pressure, how to stuff a wound with gauze, and how to apply a tourniquet during a Powerpoint presentation.

The group of about 80, which also included parent liaisons and community engagement specialists, then broke into smaller groups for some practical experience to apply what they just learned.

Russo acknowledged that some of the macabre topics raised during such training can be unpleasant to discuss.

“We recognize that the safety team members are the ones who are in the hallways, and if something catastrophic were to occur in the school — like an active shooter — they would be in essence the first responders, somebody on the scene that might have to control bleeding,” he said. “While they would be locking down with everybody else in an emergency, if they end up locked down in a room where somebody’s injured, then they would be there to assist with treatment as police and fire and everybody else makes the scene safe.”

Mareno said Stop the Bleed goes hand in hand with a program where the city police department teaches civilians about the most effective ways to respond to active shooter situations.

He said the department would love to train all school district employees, including administrators, at future professional development days.