SOLON — The Solon Community School District (SCSD) is taking new measures to increase the safety of students when they go back to school in the fall. By the end of the summer, the district will have doubled the number of cameras in the buildings and will have had all teachers take the “Stop The Bleed” course amongst other safety training.
Superintendent Davis Eidahl said they were told by homeland security and emergency management when incidents happen, it is often the bleeding that causes deaths. Dr. Azeemuddin Ahmed is a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Iowa. Dr. Ahmed and his staff volunteered to lead the teachers and local first responders through that training. This training covered “Stop The Bleed®,” as well as CPR, choking procedures, the use of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) and the use of Narcan® (for opioid overdose). Stop the Bleed® is a course teaching immediate bleeding control developed by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and provided nationwide under a licensing agreement through the Department of Defense.
Eidahl said the training took about three hours to complete and he has received a lot of positive feedback from the staff. Eidahl said, “They just felt more confident and assured that if an incident of any sort occurred at the district that they felt more equipped and confident responding to that.”
Eidahl says they have plans to continue these training courses each year to accommodate new staff and the classified staff including bus drivers and cafeteria workers.
In 2022, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds set aside money for safety that allowed schools to apply for up to $50,000 per school building to increase safety and security. The SCSD received the full $50,000 per building, which brought their total to $200,000. The district is using this money to install new cameras and key fobs in each building.
The schools have had cameras in them for many years already, but Eidahl said there were too few and they were becoming outdated. There will be about twice the number of cameras in the high school. Eidahl said, “These cameras will have easier access for the administration, if needed, and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department can also access if needed during an emergency.”
In addition to the new cameras, they are replacing the key fobs on the building with new versions. These fobs will be able to send a notification whenever the door is propped open or does not close all the way.
The intermediate school, currently undergoing an expansion, will also see new film on the windows to provide more durability to the large windows that cover the school. Eidahl said, “The feedback [from parents] is very positive, especially that we are looking at these things and including expertise from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department and Johnson County Emergency Management Agency.”
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