Rubi Ezpinoza

Seniors Giselle Aguilar, Litzy Topete, and Dania Garcia-Lucero perform CPR on a test dummy in the Foundations of Nursing class through ROP. While students used to learn CPR in health classes, changes in the curriculum have made learning it more of a challenge.

CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a life saving technique for people who go into cardiac arrest. Not only did it save Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin this past January, but it also saved Heather Baker, a 28 year old woman,  who on April 7, 2023 was chatting and joking around with her colleagues when she suddenly went into cardiac arrest at work. 

CPR is a valuable skill that everyone should know.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 356,000 people have gone into cardiac arrest during their day to day lives with about 60%-80% of them dying before being able to make it to a hospital. 

So, why isn’t it taught in high school? 

While it used to be taught in health classes, it was dropped when health was cut from a year long class to a semester class. “That whole chunk of first aid and CPR, all that chapter we just don’t teach it so we just moved on to all of the other chapters that we needed to cover.” Health teacher Carolyn Cleaves said.

Health teacher Uriel Gutierrez said, “CPR is taught in other classes so we don’t go over it. I do show a brief overview of CPR, but I don’t actually teach it. I also don’t have the dolls anymore and I believe Sports Med took the dolls.” 

While Cleaves and Gutierrez are both certified, there are other people on campus who are also CPR trained/certified: Sports Medicine instructor Marisol Rasul, Athletic Director Jose Gil, as well as all the coaches. 

Along with the coaches, PE teachers are also required to know CPR. Since they go over the swimming unit they are required to know how to perform CPR in case of an emergency. Thankfully, none of them have had to perform CPR during the swimming unit. “Everybody should know how to perform CPR that way anybody and everybody can help not just on campus but in the community as well.” PE teacher Guillermo Camacho said 

In an informal survey of 270 students, 80% of the people don’t know how to perform CPR. Along with that thought, 90% of the students who took the survey are interested in learning how to perform CPR.    

“I think it would be fun to learn along with that fact that it is a life saving skill. Especially since I’m an average person I think it would be a useful skill to know,” junior Danna Ramirez said. “I myself don’t know how to swim, so I feel like knowing how to perform CPR is something I should at least learn.”

People interested in learning CPR can go to the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association through Salinas Valley Memorial. The classes are often combined with basic first aid and AED instruction.