By Shirin Parsavand
The Press Enterprise (Riverside, California)
The Corona-Norco Unified School District is studying whether to add defibrillators to at least some of its schools, to help prevent tragedies like the one that claimed the life of a 16-year-old on campus last fall.
The issue likely will come before the board of education at its Nov. 7 meeting, said Thomas Pike, assistant superintendent for student services.
George Salazar, a junior at Corona High School, died last November after collapsing on the football field at school during a pickup game with friends.
An athletic trainer performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
An automatic external defibrillator, used when a person goes into cardiac arrest, delivers a shock to the heart to restore its normal rhythm.
City Councilman Steve Nolan, who serves on a city-district schools committee, has pressed for defibrillators in the schools. Nolan’s daughter is on the soccer team at Corona High.
“I would feel much more comfortable if that (defibrillator) unit was there,” Nolan said.
The Corona Fire Department is advocating the district’s high schools, at least, have defibrillators, said Raymond Lusk, deputy fire chief.
“We think there’s a potential to save lives — not just students but adult visitors and teachers, people who work there,” Lusk said.
New York state requires defibrillators in schools, and Pennsylvania and Ohio set aside funds to help schools purchase them.
The devices cost about $2,000 each.
Only a handful of Inland school districts have defibrillators.
The Murrieta Valley Unified School District last November approved funding to put defibrillators in all of its middle schools and high schools after the death of a Murrieta student, 14-year-old Travis Roy.
Four of the district’s elementary schools also have added the defibrillators through donations, and the rest of the district’s schools plan to have them by the end of the year, district spokeswoman Karen Parris said.
Travis’ father, Robert Roy, pleaded for the defibrillators in Murrieta Valley and has urged other districts to add them as well. But officials in some districts have expressed concerns about liability.
A Hemet business owner tried to donate a defibrillator to one of the high schools there last spring. The district declined the donation, citing liability concerns and a lack of school policies on the devices.
Corona-Norco is looking into the liability issues with one of its insurance brokers, Pike said. It also has sought information from the Corona Fire Department, emergency medical services, suppliers of the devices and other school districts.
Pike said the district is trying to determine not only whether to put defibrillators in schools, but if so, how many a school should have and where they should be placed.