Yesterday, your child may have come home and shared that there was an ambulance on the school grounds. Just before 2:00 pm, we had an accident and we needed to call an ambulance. A Kindergarten child was hurt. Last night I was able to chat with his mother, and she reports that he is doing well.

Children get hurt at school. We have many systems in place to prevent accidents, but sometimes kids get hurt. Very rarely will we need to call for an ambulance.

The most common form of first aid provided at school is giving a child a bag of ice. We bring out a cooler of ice to the East playground and children always seem to feel a bit better if they get some ice when they have a bump. If the bump is bad, or they bumped their head, we call home and let parents know.

Schools do not have a full-time nurse. Vancouver Coastal Health have community nurses who support schools, but we have no medical assistance at school. So when children (or adults) need medical attention, we need to call home or call for an ambulance.

That is what we did yesterday. His music teacher contacted the office for help. We mobilized ourselves to do different jobs. Support and comfort the child. Move the rest of the class away from the the area where the child was. Call 911. Contact his mother and/or father. Grab our two-way radios. Assign jobs to staff (someone stays in office, someone prints out the emergency information for ambulance, someone gets ready to meet the ambulance, someone stays with the child, someone remains ready to keep children away as the ambulance needs to drive on the school grounds, and someone needs to cover the Kindergarten class so the child’s teacher can check in with him). We also need to be ready to meet the child’s mother and bring her to her son.

All of the above happened in a few minutes.

Our grade 7 class all paired up with the K’s, and their teacher monitored 50 children. The ambulance arrived and we escorted it around the West playground to the music portable. Three paramedics emerged and they got right to work. They were excellent with our injured child.

Mom arrived and we brought her to the music portable. Once the paramedics and the child’s mother arrived, our job changed. We focus on monitoring the other children and answering questions they may have.

• “Why is the ambulance here?” – “Someone is hurt, and they are here to help.”
• “Who got hurt?”- “One of our Kindergarten students.”
• “Will he be ok?” – “Yes. He will be ok.”

The paramedics moved the child into the ambulance, mom climbed in too, and off they went.

Thank you to all the staff and students who did their part in helping keep things calm.

Here’s to a cal Friday the 13th. I know everything will go well today.

Take care.