Moved to action by the death of an eight-year-old Ontario boy, the Fraser-Cascade School District board is asking legislators to discuss implementing automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) in all B.C. school buildings.
In a March 26 letter to Education Minister Rob Fleming, the board asks legislators to entertain a motion making AEDs in all school buildings, public and private, mandatory. Spurred by the tragic death of eight-year-old Griffin Martin in an Ottawa elementary school, School District 78 —which covers the communities of Agassiz, Boston Bar, Harrison Hot Springs and Hope — has now installed AEDs in all district schools.
Letter to Minister of Education from School District 78 by Ingrid Peacock on Scribd
The young Ontario boy died in February 2017 when his heart stopped beating during recess at the Orleans Wood Elementary School in Ottawa. The school did not have an AED, a device that delivers electric shocks to a person in cardiac arrest to restore normal heart rhythm, a device which could have saved his life.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, an AED combined with CPR can increase the likelihood of saving someone’s life by 75 per cent compared to only giving CPR.
Assistant superintendent Kevin Bird said in December the AEDs can be life-saving for students with unknown heart conditions, student-athletes and even aging teachers.
Trustee Tom Hendrickson heard about the death of Martin and the advocacy his parents have been doing to bring AEDs to schools since the death of their son. Concerned about the heart health of students for some time, Martin’s death spurred Hendrickson to bring a motion to the board requesting they look into equipping district schools with the devices.
“This has been in my head for a long time because I’ve noticed young athletes dropping all over the country over the years. So this was what instigated it, the death of Griffin Martin,” Hendrickson said.
As the motion was being discussed by the board, another tragedy hit closer to home. Surrey high school student and basketball player Raphael Alcoreza died in hospital Dec. 7 after collapsing at a basketball game at Holy Cross Regional High School the week before.
“We don’t know if one of these machines would have saved him,” Hendrickson said at a Dec. 12 board meeting. “But it is our responsibility as trustees to give every opportunity and every chance to kids.”
After equipping all schools in the district with AEDs this March, the board is now advocating for a province-wide mandatory installation similar to what Manitoba has in place, except it would only be mandatory in school buildings.
The Defibrillator Public Access Act, passed in 2013, mandates all “high-traffic public places such as gyms, arenas, community centres, golf courses, schools and airports” to have AEDs installed.
B.C. does not have a similar act, but the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s public access to defibrillation program (PAD) has distributed 820 AEDs to public places including community centres, pools, parks and libraries as of February this year. PulsePoint, an app that alerts bystanders trained in CPR when someone nearby is going into cardiac arrest, was launched in January.
“It’s the first number of minutes that are important,” Hendrickson said. “We owe it to the safety of all our students to do something about it. We don’t want any other Griffin Martin’s, whether it’s in Prince Rupert or New Westminster or wherever. You’ve got a better chance if you have these AEDs on hand.”
Kerr said there haven’t been any challenges installing the AEDs in SD78 schools, adding that placement and ease of access were taken into consideration.
The 12 AEDs will cost $30,000 over 10 years, this includes purchase, installation and changing of batteries, which works out to $3,000 per year for the district. The money comes out of the district’s reserve fund, Bird confirmed.
The school board has previously advocated through the British Columbia School Trustees Association for the distribution of reflective toques and wristbands province-wide after the death of a Hope Secondary School student. Darryl Peters was walking home along Highway 7 on Nov. 7, 2016, when he was struck by a semi-truck.
“This time we decided to take a more direct route. Instead of going through B.C. school trustees we just sent it directly to the minister,” Kerr said.
– With files from Nina Grossman
