D20 launches ‘Stop The Bleeding,’ mass shooting training for staff and educators

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Monday, March 20, teachers and staff at Discovery Canyon Campus High School learned how to use a tourniquet and how to apply pressure and wrap a gunshot wound, to help faculty become more prepared before paramedics arrive and help victims in the wake of a mass shooting.

This comes as a response to numerous mass shootings that have happened in Colorado, including the most recent shooting at Club Q.

Academy District 20 leaders said the November mass shooting at Club Q prompted them to find a new active shooter course for teachers.

"We are teaching 'Stop the Bleed' as a trauma program for rescuers to help intervene during emergency bleeding, between the time you call 911 and the time an ambulance can arrive," Bob Frederick, School Nurse at Discovery Canyon Campus High School explained.

Discovery Canyon Campus High School staff spent the morning attending the "Stop the Bleeding" training. 

"Trauma happens in any kind of situation. Whether you are alone, or out in the forest, or in a club or anything like that trauma can happen anywhere," said Frederick.

While Bob Frederick's crucial life-saving techniques only take about 60 minutes to learn, they can help save the lives of people in just ten seconds.

"Treat it like first-aid plus. Intervening with that bleeding isn't going to be controlled by just pressure alone or by a bandage alone, added Frederick." 

During the course, educators were able to learn how to correctly wrap a tourniquet, pack a gunshot wound, and provide additional medical assistance if needed. 

"If we take time to train, we take time to practice, we take time to create these inner systems, we can be prepared, and with that training, help save a life," said Mark Wahlstrom, Principal at Discovery Canyon High.

Wahlstrom followed by saying that these types of training are a sad reality for our teachers. "As a community, it takes all of us to help create a safe, positive, orderly learning environment and be prepared to respond."

As of now, 21 teachers have volunteered to take the course and representatives with District 20 say they are planning on having more of this type of training in the near future.