HURON — A program called “Stop the Bleed,” which focuses on being prepared for a critical medical situation, with school safety continuing to be a high priority goal, was presented to the Huron School Board of Education at Monday night’s meeting.
Paul Rann, Executive Director of the Huron Regional Medical Center (HRMC) Foundation, introduced the program alongside Raleigh Larson, RN at Washington Center and Huron Middle School, and Dennise Brock, RN at HRMC.
“After many unfortunate life-threatening events, the American College of Surgeons noticed a pattern of critical injuries that led to loss of life which they believe could have been prevented through simple training and the proper placement of necessary medical equipment,” Rann explained. “The result was the creation of the Stop the Bleed Program, which has been identified by the state of South Dakota as a priority program to try to roll out throughout the state.”
The program is a one-hour training that teaches trainees how to stop critical blood loss, and placement of medical equipment in each building, in three phases. Phase one includes putting five large pack kits in each building, phase two is to have a kit in every single classroom, and the final phase is having kits in large gathering areas, such as stadiums.
Brock is one of the trainers for the program and gave an explanation of what is included in the kits.

“There is a tourniquet, we train on how to use and place it, there will be dressing to apply pressure to a wound or pack a wound with, gloves and other items,” Brock said.
Larson noted, “We want to train all the teachers, we are going building by building at this time and looking into when we are going to be able to train.”
The board made a motion to approve a $5,000 pledge to support the program, which was approved pending grants from other sources and raising funds through the community.
Terry Nebelsick discussed in the Superintendent’s report the school calendar with the scheduled end date of Thursday, June 6, due to harsh weather which increased the amount of snow days.
“There have been significant weather events this year, and I will have a full report to the board by the second meeting in April, as the statistical odds are that by then we ought to be through weather events, to speculate until we know how those events will affect us,” Nebelsick explained. “To come up with a plan now would be too soon.”
In other business, the board made a motion to approve an annual resolution to continue membership with the South Dakota High School Activities Association in order to compete in statewide events such as athletics, debate, plus many more.
The Clean Diesel grant program which the board received last year, provides funds toward new school buses to replace older vehicles. An old bus would be retired and salvaged in order to receive funds for a new replacement to maintain safety in school travel.
Many successes were also celebrated throughout the district at the board meeting, which was held on Monday evening. The meeting can be viewed online at the Huron School District web site.