News release
Legislation by Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, to equip schools with life-saving trauma kits unanimously cleared the Senate Education Committee this week.
“I want to thank my colleagues for seeing the importance of this bill,” Wilk said in a prepared statement. “The effects of the shocking 2019 Saugus High School shooting are felt viscerally still in our community. Tragically, Santa Clarita is not alone. The sad reality is our students are just as vulnerable in the classroom as they are anywhere else in the world.”
Senate Bill 868 would require each school district, county office of education, and charter school to equip each classroom with a trauma kit. Each kit would be required to include:
• One tourniquet.
• One bleeding control bandage.
• One pair of non-latex protective gloves and a marker.
• One pair of scissors.
• Approved instructional documents.
Testifying as witnesses in support of SB 868 were Dr. Bud Lawrence and his daughter Cambria Lawrence from Santa Clarita. In the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Shooting, Cambria and her sister Maci created Keep the Pressure classroom trauma kits with the goal of saving lives.
Lawrence, an emergency physician at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, impressed upon his daughters the importance of immediate medical care in a crisis. Together, they have been able to get these kits into every Santa Clarita Valley junior high and high school.
“Our students are our most precious commodity in this state. Our teachers are superheroes, but they’re not impervious to bullets. Placing these kits in our classrooms will absolutely save lives,” said Lawrence.
“Children shouldn’t be afraid to say goodbye to their parents when they’re leaving for school thinking it will be the last time they’ll see them,” said Cambria Lawrence. “Just placing one of these kits in every classroom can help save a life.”
During the Saugus shooting, Keep the Pressure trauma kits ended up being a critical tool used by law enforcement and teachers to save lives.
“School is supposed to be a place of peace where students feel safe to learn and grow. In the event of a shooting, our first responders are focused first on neutralizing the threat,” Wilk said. “That’s why it’s so important to ensure our teachers are equipped with the tools they need to keep students alive.”
To see a previous Signal feature on how the Keep the Pressure kits designed by Maci and Cambria Lawrence helped save the life of a student wounded in the 2019 Saugus High School shooting, visit signalscv.com/2020/11/family-saves-lives-in-the-wake-of-saugus-high-shooting.
