Aliyya Swaby Photo
Shanequa Arnold’s summer CPR training allowed her to spring into action when she saw a man get shot Wednesday.
“I was talking to him. I said, ‘Hi, do you need help?’ He didn’t. But if he did, I would know what to do. I would know how to stabilize his leg,” Arnold said.
The New Horizons student is one of 30 spending the summer getting technical certification and an academic boost through the Career Pathways Tech Collaborative, piloted by the district this summer. On one of the last days of the program Thursday, they invited schools Superintendent Garth Harries and Mayor Toni Harp to see their progress and participate in mini-courses.
The four-week program is an extension of YouthStat, an initiative to keep troubled teens in school by bringing community leaders together to provide social, emotional and academic support.
“We are looking to see if we can provide students with recognized certification as well as to support them in reading, math instruction and social-emotional learning supports,” said Gemma Lumpkin, newly appointed the district’s chief of youth, family and community engagement.
Lumpkin manages Youth Stat programs at Hillhouse High School, Wilbur Cross School, Hyde School, New Light School, and New Horizons School, as well as three middle schools.
Students had the opportunity to get certified in both CPR and OSHA (Occupational and Safety Health Administration). Those who completed the program were accepted into a 12-week program at Eli Whitney Technical School, so they could get further training.
Hillhouse student Dwayne Sutherland said he plans to continue his training in the fall. “As it started, no one wanted to come here, because it’s the summer and we wanted to be outside. But it feels way better in here than it does out there,” he quipped. Sutherland said the “program helped me figure out what I want to do,” which is more than sitting on a couch taking money from his mother.
“If I can do it, my friends can do it,” said Sutherland, who said he wants to set an example for his peers.
Mayor Harp watched Arnold wrap up Sutherland’s imaginary wound, which he got from falling off an imaginary bike. Arnold swabbed Sutherland’s arm with alcohol and wrapped gauze around it. She put enough pressure “so it’s secure,” she said.
“You don’t want to mess up the circulation,” chimed in New Light student Jean Calcano.
Unless it’s a “tourniquet,” a tightly constricted bandage used when the wound is so severe, amputation is likely, Sutherland added.
Calcano rolled a plastic baby over on its side, to prevent it from choking on regurgitated food or an obstructing item. He said he’s never had to use CPR training on real people before, but is sure it’ll come in handy.
Sutherland helped Calcano perform compressions on the plastic baby, using two knuckles or two fingers to push about an inch and a half down. A green light on the baby’s plastic diaper indicated he was doing it correctly. Too deep and you “puncture a lung,” Sutherland said.
The collaborative program includes an initiative called ECHO (which stands for “Empathy, Character, Hope and Opportunity”) pioneered by the Justice Education Center, which seeks to boost students’ ability to connect with their peers — very literally.
Superintendent Harries joined eight students in a human web and then worked to get untangled, without breaking any arms.
“Get the superintendent over Alejandro to Carl!” one student suggested. It didn’t work. So they tried another tactic.
“Garth’s going to lose a limb!” Harp joked.
The activity taught students how to work together and use different leadership styles to solve a problem, said Jason Bouvier, who oversaw the web. He said he was proud that the students were “not willing to go out until the problem was fixed.”
