SNOHOMISH — By the end of this school year, more than 300 students in the Snohomish School District will be certified in CPR and first-aid skills.
Snohomish firefighters Thursday were teaching teens at Glacier Peak High School how to perform CPR, also known as cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Plastic heads and torsos, lying in neat rows on the floor, greeted students as they arrived for Chris Utt’s health class.
“The training you’re getting right here and right now could very possibly affect you and you will have to use it someday,” said Jason Leighty, a fire lieutenant and paramedic with Snohomish County Fire District 4 in Snohomish.
Leighty walked the students through the steps of chest compressions, opening an airway and performing mouth-to-mouth rescusitation. It can take more than five minutes for help to arrive after calling 911, he said.
The person dying might be a loved one, the students were told, and they could make a difference.
CPR in those moments — what firefighters call “bystander CPR” — is a major factor in survival rates.
Andrea Leighty, a registered nurse and a volunteer firefighter, told the girls in the class to use their upper body weight for leverage. A metronome played a heavy drum-like sound to time the compressions.
“Last period we had a bunch of band kids in here, and band kids can keep a beat,” Jason Leighty said.
The Leightys are married and their three kids, all students in the Snohomish district, have CPR certification. The Leightys were joined in the class by Fire Chief Ron Simmons and firefighter Aaron Hammer. They all kneeled next to the kids, offering tips and adjusting mannequins. At once, 30-some mannequins gasped, the sound filling the room.
“How are you guys doing? Are you getting air in?” Andrea Leighty asked a group of students. “There you go. Try it again.”
Sophomore Ankur Graves, 16, already knows about the importance of lifesaving, he said. His dad once performed the Heimlich maneuver for a man who was choking on a hot dog. It happened at one of Ankur’s lacrosse tournaments.
“I was thinking about this the whole time,” he said. “My dad did this already.”
Personal safety and managing stress also have been part of this week’s lessons, Ankur said.
So was what to do if someone has a stroke or passes out, said Aenne Thom, 15, a sophomore.
“Being educated to be able to save someone’s life is an opportunity to take advantage of,” she said.
Jason Leighty coordinates the district’s CPR program. Snohomish firefighters altogether perform CPR about a dozen times a month, he said.
This is the first year the training has been provided for free to students through the schools, he said. The fire district agreed to fund the program because of the value brought to the community by those with basic lifesaving skills.
“It was an experiment and it worked out really well,” Leighty said.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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