Miami Beach, FL – Teaming up with Marjory Stoneman Douglas mother and Broward County School Board Member Lori Alhadeff, the Miami Beach City Commission voted unanimously to purchase “Stop the Bleed” kits for all public schools in the city.
“Being prepared for known school threats and hazards is critical to our ability to help protect our children,” explained Miami Beach Commissioner Micky Steinberg, who sponsored the funding measure that was approved by the Miami Beach Commission on Friday, Sept. 17. “The hope is to never have to use these kits, but to have them just in case.”
Alhadeff lost her 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, in the Parkland school shooting, and later founded Make Our Schools Safe to promote a culture of school safety through legislation like “Alyssa’s Law” and efforts such as “Stop the Bleed.” The organization is dedicated to driving and guiding best practices in school safety by empowering students and staff to maintain safety and vigilance in a secure school environment.
The medical kits are equipped with tourniquets, compression bandages and blood-clotting hemostatic gauze to control excessive blood loss. Miami Beach officials agreed to contribute $20,000 to the cost of the kits. Alhadeff’s Make Our Schools Safe organization will contribute another $15,000 and the office of Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia Baez-Geller will contribute $2,000.
“These ‘Stop the Bleed’ kits will help in a life-threatening, emergency situation if it comes down to that,” Alhadeff told commissioners. “Hopefully, the threat won’t happen, but if it does, these ‘Stop the Bleed’ kits will help to save lives — will help bridge the gap between when EMS can get to the scene to help triage the victims.”
Miami Beach Senior High School already had “Stop the Bleed” kits, and 349 additional kits will now be installed at the other five Miami Beach public schools as well as at nearby Treasure Island Elementary, which has a number of students who live in Miami Beach. Miami-Dade County Public Schools will absorb the cost of training, installation and upkeep of the kits.
“Stop the Bleed” kits were developed through a collaboration of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma to improve survivability in cases of severe blood loss based on the lessons learned during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas claimed the lives of 17 students and staff on Valentine’s Day 2018.
“We are proud to join with the City of Miami Beach and Make Our Schools Safe to ensure the availability of ‘Stop the Bleed’ kits in every classroom in Miami Beach,” said Baez-Geller, who taught at Miami Beach Senior High School for 15 years before she was elected to the School Board of Miami-Dade County. “The safety of our students is paramount, and the installation of ‘Stop the Bleed’ kits’ are a much-needed tool to protect our students.”
