CPR and AED training are crucial skills taught in schools that provide students and educators with life-saving knowledge. However, without access to updated CPR training protocol or CPR kits, many athletic directors and P.E. teachers lack the resources to provide their schools with necessary training.
This morning the Los Angeles Rams and The American Heart Association collaborated to equip educators in the Los Angeles area with CPR training resources. They invited representatives from 22 Los Angeles schools to attend the event, which was hosted at Sofi Stadium -- the home of the Rams. They also offered a chance for the schools to win their own AED package, which contains the automated external defibrillator itself.
Johnathan Franklin, Senior Director of Social Justice and Football Development for the Los Angeles Rams and a Los Angeles native, uniquely understands the lack of access to CPR training within the area and toll it has taken by putting the lives of students and athletes in danger.
In a personal anecdote he said, “At Dorsey High School, there was an individual, Kevin Copeland, who passed away due to going into cardiac arrest. So for me, just learning about that growing up, being from the community, understanding growing up I didn’t have resources to CPR education, to understanding if something happened in my household, what do I do.”
Franklin stressed that by using Sofi and the Ram’s resources, they can do their part to “inspire change and meet the need of the community.”
Rogelio Diaz, a 9th grade P.E. teacher at Animo City of Champions who grew up in Inglewood, illustrates the way this event helps bridge the gap between Sofi and the surrounding community.
“Personally, this is my first time to the stadium. I’ve never been here to the stadium. I grew up in Inglewood. I grew up just across the street on the other side. And it’s a beautiful, I just love how it’s just changing the whole community,” Diaz said.
As an advocate for the benefits of sports for mental health, Diaz also shared hope that this collaboration will help his students succeed.
Many other teachers, athletic directors, and coaches, like Diaz, said they hoped that the resources they’ll be bringing back to their schools will make sports safer for their students.
Lin Hom, a volunteer girls flag football coach at Marshall High School won a bright, red AED.
“I think it’s wonderful giving us new information, new equipment. I think it’s the greatest collaboration that anybody, but especially a high schooler, a school setting can get,” she said. “The more people that learn CPR, the better. And it’s just an incentive for me to kind of spread the knowledge around to everyone.”
Aria Fulton, a science teacher at St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood, says the training helped remind her why teaching CPR matters. In the training she learned that a person experiencing cardiac arrest could lose their life in just ten minutes if they don’t receive CPR.
Fulton said, “Every decision that we make within those 10 minutes is a life or death decision. And so I know I’m more fit to care for my school, care for my students, my teachers, the families that are there.”
Although Fulton was not a lucky winner of an AED, she stresses that even the training curriculum every school received will make a major difference in her ability to teach and protect her students.
“I’m excited for the curriculum that we’re gonna get for our students. It’s on a USB drive, which is very accessible for us. I think we got all, this was an amazing opportunity that we were invited to, so there’s nothing more that we need, just the support, and we’re grateful for that,” she said.
Moriah Easily, who works with Fulton, feels the same way. When asked about her biggest takeaway she said, “empowering our students to be able to take charge in a situation and not feeling like they can just be a bystander.”
Franklin, the Los Angeles Rams Director of Social Justice, said that the goal of this event is “to really move the needle, drive the change, and ultimately save a life if needed.”
This event is one of many happening within the NFL in an effort to connect the nationally recognized teams with the communities they play in and provide schools with life-saving resources.