BEMUS POINT, N.Y. — Stop the Bleed kits are the newest addition to emergency boxes at Maple Grove High School, which is part of the Bemus Point School District in Chautauqua County.

"To keep our students and staff safe as they can possibly be," said Joe Reyda, superintendent, Bemus Point Central School District.

What You Need To Know

  • School districts across Chautauqua County are in the process of getting Stop the Bleed kits

  • The kits and the training were created following the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012

  • Both staff and students have been trained on using the kits

Superintendent Reyda says staff and students have been trained how to use the kits, an added safety resource in case of emergency.

"We didn't want to be surprised by things," said Reyda. "In case of an accident. In case someone falls. In case someone gets lacerated. In case something bad happens, we know how to respond appropriately."

The kits include a number of first aid tools, including gauze, medical seals and tourniquets.

The kits, along with training, were initially made available to first responders nationwide following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. It was later offered to others following the one in Uvalde in 2022. 

Contents are created based on wounding patterns consistent in several of those locations.

"These specific pieces of equipment, we're able to combat those injury patterns in a way that a civil personnel or minimally trained medical personnel could do so and become proficient within a short amount of time," said Joshua Schauman, EMS education coordinator, Chautauqua County of Emergency Services.

Schauman demonstrates the kits to leaders in all county districts, like Bemus, in response to a growing trend of shootings. 

"We're not willing to talk about it, so all we had to do is, we had to realize we need to stop hiding from this and we need to get in front of it," he said.

Schauman says they can also be used as a multi-purpose first aid kit that he would like to see in school districts across the state.

"And get behind this training and really make sure that these kits are where they should be and the staff are trained on how to use them. I would love to see us be a model," said Schauman.

Reyda is grateful for the 10 Stop the Bleed kits his district received thanks to financial support from local foundations.

"That allowed us to do something that we may not have been able to do," he said.

To help secure the kits, the county received more than $25,000 in grant funding, thanks to the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation and the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation.