NC High School Students Required To Take CPR

NC High School Students Required To Take CPR

July 30, 2012 | Keri Brown

North Carolina high school students will soon have to complete another requirement before earning their diplomas.

Students will be required to learn CPR and the Heimlich maneuver before earning their diplomas starting in 2015.

Gov. Beverly Perdue signed into law Thursday a bill that requires students to show proficiency in cardiopulmonary resuscitation training before graduation. Stacey Ryan is with the American Red Cross in Greensboro. She's the Director of Service Delivery for the Mid-Atlantic Region. Ryan said accidents can happen at any time, so it helps to be prepared.

“These are skills that will save someone’s life and the training that the student will receive will help them possibly decide on an occupation in the future, emergency medical services or nursing,” said Ryan.

According to the American Heart Association, an individual goes into cardiac arrest in the United States every two minutes. In North Carolina, 23 percent of all deaths are attributed to heart disease.

CPR training has been required for graduation since 1997, but it has not been enforced. The governor's office says North Carolina is one of five states with the requirement. Ryan said the American Red Cross has been working with educators throughout the state.

“Since 1997, The American Red Cross has been training teachers in the health education curriculum as American Red Cross instructors and then they in turn have been training the students, so they have been able to determine and decide the curriculum, when to offer this training and when it occurs in the classroom," said Ryan.

Gov. Perdue also signed into law a bill that requires at least one automatic external defibrillator unit in every state building and that employees are trained to use them.