Grand Blanc Community Schools is proud to announce exciting news from the MI HEARTSafe School program! The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan Department of Education, American Heart Association, Michigan High School Athletic Association, and Michigan Alliance for Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death of the Young have granted Grand Blanc East and West Middle Schools, Perry Innovation Center, and Grand Blanc High School the MI HEARTSafe School award for 2017-2020!
The MI HEARTSafe program will announce the award publicly in October and provide a banner for the buildings to display. Secondary buildings have been working diligently with District Nurse Consultant, Rachel O’Mara, to increase AED awareness and practice cardiac emergency response. Rachel has led many surprise drills over several months to catch staff off-guard and practice for real-life situations. Each building in our district has a Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) composed of staff members who are CPR certified and trained in how to respond to medical situations in our schools. The district offers CPR classes on a continuous basis to keep up with requirements.
The next step is to work with elementary buildings in the fall, starting with Myers Elementary in honor of 5th grade student, London Eisenbeis, who passed due to sudden cardiac arrest earlier this year.
The MI HEARTSafe certification indicates the following requirements have been met:
- A written cardiac emergency response plan, reviewed at least annually with staff.
- A cardiac emergency response team with current CPR/AED certification, sufficient to respond to an emergency during school hours AND during organized after-school activities and sports, if applicable
- At least 10% of staff, 50% of coaches including 100% of head coaches, and 100% of P.E. staff with current completion of CPR/AED certification course*.
*Qualifying CPR/AED courses are the American Heart Association’s Heartsaver course and the American Red Cross’s CPR/AED course. - A sufficient number* of accessible, properly maintained and inspected AEDs, ready to use, with signs identifying AED locations.
*Sufficient number is estimated by time to scene from recognition to AED placement within 2-5 minutes. - The performance of at least one cardiac emergency response drill* per year.
*Including recognizing signs of sudden cardiac arrest and using the American Heart Association’s Chain of Survival: calling 9-1-1 and use of bystander CPR and AED until EMS arrive to provide advanced life support. - All athletic pre-participation screening completed with the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) form (updated in 2016).
The MI Heart Safe School certification requires training and practice regularly and the certification will need to be renewed at the end of three years. Congratulations to the staff and Nurse O’Mara on this important accomplishment!
More info on MI HeartSafe School can be found at migrc.org/Library/heartsafeprogram.html
