Grade 12 Students Organize Impactful Health & Safety Sessions

On Wednesday mornings you typically find Senior School students in an assembly, but not this past week. Led by two Grade 12 students, Iris Thompson-Chang and Jacob Tam, the Grade 9, 11 and 12 classes spent this block learning valuable skills related to community health and safety including CPR and naloxone training.

Despite their busy schedules with their International Baccalaureate courses and co-curricular activities, both students have first aid training and wanted to pass on this valuable knowledge to their classmates. Outside of school, Jacob works as a lifeguard and Iris is a summer camp counsellor, so both understand the significance of this training to the community and of giving back via service. 

Both students had the same idea of teaching the student body, so they teamed up after discovering their shared goals. With the support of Ms. Rebecca Nielson, Senior School Vice Principal & Coordinator of Student Life & Leadership, they were able to make it happen!

Iris was very moved after reading about a recent incident at the University of Victoria where a student overdosed and no one was trained to provide CPR or administer naloxone in time. “I have a few first aid certifications, but it made me realize that that’s not the case for everyone and that it’s a really important thing. And so, Jacob and I teamed up to bring the skill to the student body, to hopefully save lives in the future, because it’s such an important thing to be able to respond appropriately to these situations.”

Jacob also shares that he was motivated by the fact that “BC doesn’t mandate CPR training in their high schools, whereas Ontario and three other provinces do”, despite calls for action from advocates nationally. “CPR itself, it’s not that complicated to do. It’s quite accessible, and even if you have a rough idea of what to do, you could make the difference between someone’s life and death.”

The overall goal was to equip students with a range of health and safety skills that are especially relevant, given the opioid crisis currently affecting British Columbia. Prior to this event, Jacob and Iris shared a presentation with the entire Senior School to prepare for these sessions, with more information about the importance of CPR and naloxone, and how this training can reduce the risk of injuries and emergencies that occur in public spaces. They also shared research from the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation showing that with CPR and AED usage, the survival rate for an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest goes from 10% to 50%. 

Iris and Jacob recruited three GNS parents who are all ER doctors to teach CPR, with the assistance of CPR dummies and AED trainers. Students were taught all about doing CPR to the rhythm of 100 to 120 beats per minute, and how the tempo of many songs can help your compression timing (including the classic “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees).

Naloxone training was run by Grade 11 students and staff volunteers, with training kits from local pharmacies. Students Sasha Baterina, Lily Jakeman, Cleo Hunt and Janey Bryan all were trained in how to administer Naloxone as part of their CAS projects. They will be running two additional training sessions for students who were not able to participate in the first session during lunch periods on Friday January 31 and Monday February 3. Please contact them for more information.

With big thanks to everyone involved, the event was a resounding success, with most of the Senior School taking part, but the community does want to especially thank the parent volunteers, Dr. Andrew MacPherson, Dr. Jeff Unger, and Dr. Terence Tam.

Iris shares that “one of the things we want to highlight is the importance of further training and education.” Students who wish to further their skills are encouraged to look into first aid certifications, available locally from Alert First Aid, St John Ambulance, and local recreation centres (such as Oak Bay Rec). The most common options are Emergency First Aid and Standard First Aid which are both available for ages 12 and up. Although there is usually a cost associated with the certifications, Jacob and Iris remind students that employers consider these certifications a major asset to young employees for part-time and summer jobs.

Moving forward, Iris and Jacob are looking to continue their advocacy efforts through service learning, potentially presenting a petition to the BC government to ensure that all students have access to CPR training as part of their high school curriculum.

Well done to these Class of 2025 students for such a commendable service to the community!