Training to Save: It’s extremely valuable to know what to do in the case of someone bleeding out and should be addressed more frequently

Alert 911, find the bleeding and compress. These are the ABCs of stopping someone from bleeding out. 

This information is something I never thought I’d need to know until there was a shooting in my city during the Super Bowl parade and learned my best friend was standing 15 feet from the shooter.

In 2024, there have been more mass shootings in the U.S. than there have been days, with 49 mass shootings on only the 46th day of the year. Students and teachers need to be informed on how to save a life in the event they experience one of these. 

Knowing how to treat a bullet wound at 16-year-old shouldn’t be a required skill, but the reality is that it could be the difference between life and death.

Through a course at East this semester, other students and I were taught how to address a wound and stop the person from bleeding out to prevent someone from losing their life. 

One thing that’s stuck with me since that meeting is the only thing that’s more tragic than a death is a death that could have been prevented. 

We must take steps to educate people — whether through courses about helping an injured person for students and teachers or adding Stop the Bleed packs in the halls with gauze, a tourniquet, gloves and more supplies for schools and public places.

It doesn’t need to be a two-hour-long seminar describing what to do second-by-second, but people do need to know how to safely and efficiently help someone — a few minutes out of your life can save someone else’s.

I’m beyond frustrated that being a student in America means worrying about a shooting scare every day, even when security measures are taken for our protection. But I know I’m prepared now if something happens — I hope everyone can feel at least some sort of relief from being informed on what to do. 

Take the course, stop the bleed.