NJ Spotlight published the following article on September 2, 2014. To read the full article, click here.
NEW LAW AIMS TO MAKE EVERY HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENT A POTENTIAL LIFESAVER
All public and charter schools must offer CPR, defibrillator training
Laurie Heavener is one of the most vocal advocates for a new state law requiring high-school students to be taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation for a simple reason: She wouldn’t be alive if a trained student hadn’t been there when she had a heart attack.
She collapsed in March 2008 in the middle of a Randolph Township road. Sam Baron, then a student at the Pingry School in Bernards Township, saw a crowd surrounding Heavener and put his recently acquired CPR training to use. The private school required all students to undergo the training.
“Had it not been for this sophomore who had taken this mandatory CPR class through his school I would not be here,” Heavener told legislators at a hearing.
The law, signed by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno while she was serving as acting governor last month, requires all public and charter high schools to provide every student with training in CPR and the use of defibrillators. While current school curriculum standards require basic life-support competency, legislators and heart-health advocates said it was important to specify that every student would receive CPR training.