The classroom buzz softened to silence and a panic began to spread throughout the room. The seconds slowed and everyone seemed paralyzed. Students understood what was happening but didn’t know how to help their fainting classmate.

Grady does not train teachers for emergency health situations other than if the parents notify the school that their child has diabetes, epilepsy or extreme allergies, noted Principal Dr. Betsy Bockman. In these situations, the student’s teachers would be the only ones with knowledge of this information in the classroom. They are notified as to what the issue is as well as told how to handle the situation, but no official training is provided.

Atlanta Public Schools has a Student Services Department in which the social workers, counselors, psychologists and nurses provide emotional support and offer aid in physical health. The Safety and Security department also exists to protect students from threats such as intruders. Neither of these departments offer training to teachers for emergency crises.

“Communication is key, and in situations like that, time is of the essence, and we need to be trained on what to do,” said teacher Susan Salvesen.

Salvesen was teaching when senior Ellen Winer fainted in her Advanced Placement US Government class, and Salvesen felt unprepared to handle the emergency at hand. In her own high school health class, she received CPR certification but has not renewed it since. Salvesen also admitted that if she needed to, she would not be able to work a defibrillator.

“My main concern was the lack of communication I had as a teacher,” Salvesen said. “I felt like it took a really long time for the nurse to respond. For me, it felt like forever; I don’t know how long it was in actuality. I felt like it took even a long time for Herrera [the next door teacher] to get in and help me.”

It took three minutes. One hundred and twenty seconds from the time neighbor teacher Mario Herrera walked in the room until the nurse, Wanda Taylor, arrived. Yet, that was enough time for a student to run to the nurse’s office, notice the nurse was not there, come back and find an administrator with a walkie-talkie. A lot can happen in three minutes. So the question arises: should the school district train teachers in emergency medical procedures?

Teaching is a responsibility on its own. To extend the responsibility of knowing students’ mental and physical health could invade students’ privacy or burden the teachers, said Herrera, who trained in geriatrics for 10 years prior to teaching.

“The level of training, certification, resources and law that exists in healthcare is there for a reason,” Herrera said. “To add that burden to teachers who are already overwhelmed seems unreasonable, as well as the effectiveness being questionable.”

Besides the physical skills of emergency care, there is a protocol of communication that needs to be in place and understood. Salvesen faced a communication gap which could have put her student in danger. In an attempt to get help, after the nurse could not be reached, a student pressed the intercom to notify the main office of an emergency, but it did not seem to work.

Students waiting in the hall spotted the nurse coming down the hall, and an administrator also made their way into the room. Winer was helped and was fine; it was a freak accident, a crisis.

Within the last month, Dr. Bockman had the call buttons fixed. She referred to problems such as these as “leaky faucets,” which means some faculty and staff have dismissed the imperfections.

She reviewed what to do in a crisis situation in the staff meeting on Tues., Jan. 30.

“Teachers are underpaid and many aren’t given adequate resources to teach their classes, so it makes some sense that there hasn’t been much focus on first aid and medical training,” senior Sarah Slutsker said.