Point Pleasant Schools Ready to Care for Students' Hearts

Point Pleasant Borough Schools are taking care of their students’ hearts -- literally.

The district announced that two state initiatives have helped make the students safer, and both focus on their hearts. The Scholastic Student-Athlete Safety Act was enacted as a means of combating cardiomegaly, or enlarged heart. Typically an inherited condition, cardiomegaly causes the heart muscle to thicken, making it harder to pump blood efficiently. It is the most common cause of sudden death among young athletes but is easily treatable if detected.

The second is Janet’s Law, which requires all New Jersey schools to have an emergency action plan for sudden cardiac arrest, as well as automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, in every school and on site for sporting events and athletic practice.

“Janet’s Law requires that there be stationary AED devices in each school as well as portable AED devices located within reasonable proximity of the location of any school sporting event,” athletic director Chris Ferrone said. “Reasonable proximity means that the AED can be retrieved and ready for use within 90 seconds of an incident.”

The Scholastic Student-Athlete Safety Act, signed into law by Governor Christie last year, establishes a standard of consistent measures that New Jersey school districts must follow when screening student-athletes.

“In accordance with the new legislation, State school districts have replaced their former physical forms with a new State-issued pre-participation physical evaluation form, which was developed collaboratively by a group of six American pediatric and sports medicine societies,” Ferrone said. ”The law also stipulates that districts must include educational pamphlets regarding sudden cardiac death in student athletes in sports physical packets, the pamphlets must be signed by the student-athletes and their parents or guardians.”

Under the Scholastic Student-Athlete Safety Act, all medical professionals, who administer student physicals, must complete a Student-Athlete Cardiac Screening professional development module that has been verified by New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education.

Janet’s Law was crafted in memory of Janet Zilinski, an 11-year-old girl from Warren who collapsed and died of sudden cardiac arrest following a cheerleading practice in August 2006. Passed in 2012, Janet’s Law officially went into effect on Sept. 1,

In compliance with the law, the district’s Central Administration and Health Services staff crafted a district-wide emergency action plan to establish consistent procedures for responding to sudden cardiac events as well as individualized plans for each school. The district also assembled school-based AED teams, who are required to hold current certifications from the American Red Cross or American Heart Association in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and in the use of the AED.

“The action plans’ procedures can be summarized using the acronym CIA, which stands for Call, Inform, and Action,” said Supervisor of Pupil Personnel Services Rita Miller, the district’s sSupervisor of pupil Personnel Services

For classroom staff, the first step – Call – refers to calling the main office; Inform, directs the responder to identify to the main office staff, the nature of the emergency, the location of the victim and the victim’s status at the time of the call: and the final procedure – Action – specifies exact protocols for both non-breathing and breathing victims.

For the main office staff, the first step identifies their appropriate response upon receiving the Call; the Inform step is to reassure the staff member present at the incident to remain calm and that help in en route; the final step –- Action - is to notify the school’s AED Team by coded announcement and to then contact 911, the student’s parents and district Central Administration.

“The Emergency Action Plans will be posted in every classroom and office in the school district,” said Ms. Miller. “Staff members will be educated on the action plan procedures so that regardless of when or where a sudden cardiac event occurs, the staff members who are on site will be prepared with the appropriate response.”

The district purchased 12 new portable AED devices and installed an additional six stationary devices at each of the district’s four schools.

“Prior to when the law was enacted, the district had only a limited number of stationary AED devices,” Miller said.

According to Mr. Ferrone, student-athletes had access to a portable AED device through the district’s athletic trainer while stationary units were often available at the locations where the district competes in sporting events.

Both Miller and Ferrone agree, however, that improved access to equipment that district health professionals and coaches have been trained to use, at each school and within reach at every school event, game and athletic practice is critical to ensure the health and well-being of district students whether in the classroom or out on the playing field.

“Because of the Scholastic Student-Athlete Safety Act, the district’s health professionals will have a more complete assessment of our student-athletes’ health history as well as a baseline for cardiac activity,” said Ferrone.

“And thanks to Janet’s Law, our staff members will have the appropriate knowledge to respond to a sudden cardiac event while our students will have consistent and reliable access to life-saving AEDs at all times,” added Ms. Miller.

To prepare for the implementation of Janet’s Law, all district health services professionals and coaches attended a one-hour training on Cardiac Science AED that was given by the manufacturer of the district’s AED devices, Team Life.