ROCKY TOP, Tenn. — In 2024, a fifth-grade student at Lake City Elementary School had a seizure during class. A classmate also had experience with seizures, so she asked the school to help students be ready in case something like that happened again.
Clara Harrell, a nurse at the school, said the student was part of the student council and had stepped up to make the school safer for everyone.
"We had a student that had a medical emergency, and several students in the class witnessed it. A student who witnessed it was a part of the student council, and she requested some further first aid training," Harrell said..
Staff at the school loved the idea, so they connected with a medical worker from the University of Tennessee Medical Center to make the training happen. That emergency medical technician brought CPR mannequins to teach the students the basics.
Students also got to learn how to treat different kinds of wounds and how to dress them. Students like Skylee Shepard, a fifth-grader at the school, said even though they're young, that shouldn't stop them from wanting to help people.
"Kids, they want to help, and they want to make sure everyone is safe while they're helping. So I think that the first aid was really helpful for the fourth and fifth (graders), because you never know. It could be a student, a teacher or even your parents. You really never know," Shepard said.
Another student, Kaleigh Sellers, said the training gave the class valuable skills to take care of people everywhere, not just at school.
"In case one of your friends or family members falls or gets cut or something, it can be very useful," Sellers said.
The school said it would love to continue offering this training for students for years to come.
"I definitely think the EMT who came would be willing to do it again. She loved helping the students, so hopefully this can be a new tradition that we start," said Harrell.
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