ASHWAUBENON (NBC 26) — From MSU to Uvalde, it's something every educator lives in fear of - the threat of an active shooter.
At a time where mass shootings have become all too common across the U.S, one local non-profit is stepping up to make sure that local schools and first responders are prepared in the event of an emergency.
Dave Taylor originally founded Fall Prevention Alliance to bring awareness to injury prevention, particularly helping seniors to avoid falls. Then 10 years ago, the non-profit started its Rescue Task Force Project when the number of mass shootings in the U.S began to escalate. Since then, the non-profit has helped train thousands of public safety personnel as well as school staff.
“We really want to make it realistic training," Taylor said. "We make it so that the worst day is not the first day you see this."
The non-profit provides state-of-the-art equipment that is used to teach skills like bleeding control and tourniquet application completely free of charge.
The non-profit also partners with a company called CitizenAid U.S that supplies "stop the bleed" kits to the general public. They've helped get these kits into school districts across Brown County.
The Rescue Task Force Project is currently working with Ashwaubenon Public Safety to bring more stop the bleed kits to Ashwaubenon Schools.
“These are quick and easy things that can be utilized to save lives and to prevent preventable deaths," said Brian Murphy, a commander with Ashwaubenon Public Safety. "It helps a lot with survivability.”
Lori Cavil, a school nurse with the Ashwaubenon School District, helps train staff on how to use the kits. She says the kits help staff be able to take life-saving measures before first responders arrive on scene in the event of an emergency,
"Teaching them the proper way to pack a wound, to put a tourniquet on, to hold pressure and stuff like that really makes a difference so that it becomes second nature," Cavil said.
“A big part of our professional development for our staff is these types of trainings because they don’t get that in their undergraduate degrees for their teaching certificates," said Ashwaubenon Superintendent Kurt Weyers.
Taylor says the donations from Give Big Green Bay help them provide more training and resources to local emergency responders so they can stay up to date on the latest active shooter strategies and active threat response.
“After we’re done with Give Big, we’ll go back to the public safety agencies and find out what are their needs?" Taylor said. "Whatever they need to robustly add to their education program is what we’re really trying to do.”
To learn more about how your donations can help the Rescue Task Force Project with their mission, visit their page at givebiggreenbay.org.
