Young students take a free CPR class

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — As students prepare to head back to school, an ArkLaTex business provided some the opportunity to take a free CPR class. Now several youths will return to class with some potentially valuable skills.

Students were able to learn why CPR is important and how to respond in an emergency situation.

“Most people think that CPR is only for professionals or our medical professionals, but anybody can offer CPR and anybody can save a life,” Tierney Washington said.

The Love CPR & First Aid owner said the course Sunday (Aug. 6) also was able to show students how they can help their community. “I think that if our children know how to respond in an event of an emergency, it could definitely cut down on some of our deaths,” Washington said.

“Some basic information that some youths just don’t know because they’ve never been able to learn that information; no one has ever told them,” she explained. “Just basically learning how to call 911 or to recognize if the emergency is a minor emergency or life-threatening emergency. Just so they know to respond and know how important it is that they can help their community.”

What they learned extends beyond campus, Washington said. “They can also save lives, not only at school, but at home. Just imagine kids being at home and an accident happens.”

The instructor said she hopes the kids took away something informative from the class. “Today, I hope they learned our three steps of hands-only CPR, which is how to identify the emergency, how to contact 911 and what to say. And also just remaining calm.”

The students also were able to get their blood pressure checked, received a backpack with back-to-school supplies and participated in a free workout.

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