Posted on 03/10/2006 8:43:53 PM PST by Samwise
Several Martinsville High School students say teachers stopped their calls to 911 while a fellow student was choking, because cell phones aren't allowed on campus.
Witnesses tell police the victim was rushing to finish his lunch before leaving the cafeteria, because you can't bring food outside. That's when they say he started choking, went into cardiac arrest, and died at the hospital.
Multiple 911 calls went out from Martinsville High School.
Witnesses say Jesse Tucker choked on a hamburger. Paramedics rushed the 15 year-old freshman to the hospital, where he later died.
"It's really hard to grasp the fact that you witnessed someone's death," says one student, "It's really hard to take in."
24 Hour News 8 spoke to another student witness who also wants to remain anonymous. He says one of his friends tried to call 911 with his cell phone, but just as he reached an operator, he says a teacher closed his phone saying cell phones aren't allowed on campus.
"She just closed his phone. She didn't do much to help the situation. She was panicky, she didn't go to the nurse's office," says one of the students.
Martinsville Police Chief Frans Hollanders says the investigation is still in preliminary stages, and at this point, investigators aren't pointing fingers.
"We've heard rumors to such an effect, that a cell phone was slapped out of a kids hand," Hollanders says, "We haven't been able to determine that at all whatsoever."
School officicals wouldn't talk on camera, but we caught up with an assistant superintendent and he issued this statement, "We are still in shock. We do believe the teacher did everything she could in the situation."
The police chief is encouraging witnesses to share their stories with investigators.
24 Hour News 8 did speak to Jesse's father Friday night. Understandably, he says he's still in shock and just wants to know exactly what happened.
An autopsy is scheduled for Saturday morning.
I sent this article to my 15 year old grandson.
Prayers for Jesse and his family.
EMS is not permitted to declare some one dead. The kid was probably dead when the EMTs got to the school, they performed life saving techniques that had no positive results.
Can't win 'em all...
I think it's pretty stupid that my high schools students can go get an abortion without parental permission, but I'm not allowed to give them a tylenol, because if they had a reaction to it, their parents might sue the school (apparently it happened somewhere).
Even the school nurse isn't allowed to give them medicine unless it was prescribed for them and in the original container.
However, they are allowed to carry a single dose of over the counter medicine, as long as they don't share it with their friends.
I have given candy or juice to students with low blood sugar, and crackers to students with morning sickness. I guess I'll get sued one day. :-(
I´m pretty sure no teacher in their right mind would slap a phone out of a student´s hand. If they did it to me it would only be one time. Then again you said a teacher in their right mind, this evidently wasn´t the case.
I am surprised that with the number of students, and the fact these things happen all the time, that first aid for teachers and staff isn´t mandatory.
After this law suit, I am sure that school districts will compare the cost of a law suit and the cost of teaching first aid and start a program.
This also sounds like it should be taught in PE classes since the chances of injury are pretty good.
It doesn't say he was declared dead at the hospital, it says he died there.
Of course, it could be that he did die right there at school and the article is wrong.
It could also be that the quoted students were mistaken...for all we know, the teacher knew 911 had already been called a dozen times and didn't want to further clog up the system.
I guess I shouldn't make blanket statements about educators being morons. My daughter went to private grade school and is now in the local public high school. From what I've seen, though, there does seem to be an overabundance of bureaucrats who blindly follow rules and can't think for themselves.
I think this is a Great idea.
Perhaps. God forbid the teacher would say "911's been called, help is on the way." when he/she can take advantage of the situation to bully another student.
But maybe nanny school rules forbid giving explanations beyond "Because I told you so."
*sigh* None of us are at our best under stress...
Right. Criminal negligence.
not taught Heimlich but the use of condoms, yes.
One can't get a degree in common sense - you either got it or not. The 'no cell' teacher is obviously lacking common sense cells.
Tragic story.
“Misprize common sense at your peril is my motto.”— Kingsley Amis, Stanley and the Women.
Do you have a source for that?
As an aside, a surefire technique to ensure one receives simultaneous help from police, EMS, and firefighters is to simply pull the fire alarm in the school cafeteria. This will provide an accurate location to emergency responders without the potential "translational errors" of an excited student attempting to speak to an operator.
~ Blue Jays ~
My thoughts went immediately to my dear friend [now tragically dead of a brain tumor] ... who homeschooled her 8 brilliant children when home schooling was rare or even almost unheard of ...She told me that her children may not have learned to put a condom on a banana ... but they had been taught real academic subjects with a healthy dose of life skills ... including CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. Those brilliant children were enrolled in a public high school largely so that they could take [and ace] the National Merit Scholarship test ... and then went on to brilliant academic careers at schools like M.I.T. and Harvard ... and successful lives beyond that.
Now, it seems that the guvmint schools have deteriorated to the point where they have actually become life threatening. Scary, isn't it?!
All of you home schooling parents out there ... take heed ... if you do not want to teach life skills [CPR and Heimlich maneuvre, etc.] to your kids ... remember to enroll them in one of the readily available courses where they will learn them.
It does say that the piece of hamburger was about half of the hamburger, friends tried to do Heimlich but "were unsuccessful due to his large size", there were nurses at the school for a blood drive who worked on him & could get part, but not all of the food out, and they worked on him for 45 minutes at the hospital before pronouncing him dead.
This article has some additional information - it says the student was walking & tried twice to cough the food into two different wastebaskets in different areas of the school bofore collapsing and being taken to the school clinic in a wheelchair. It also says the Heimlich maneuver was attempted, but that the student weighed over 250 pounds and they think that's why it didn't work properly.
A third article has similar information but none of these three mention that help was delayed or denied because students weren't allowed to use cell phones.
I think this is a Great idea.
Good thing there are some reasonable, modest, common-sense, do-it-for-the-children regulations in place at this institution.
Well, the cell phones aren't allowed because the kids text message answers on tests. (And they just might record a Liberal teacher's rant as well!)
On another note, one of my daughter's classmate's mother is dying, so she illegally carries her cell phone. A call about the mom's condition in the middle of science class yesterday ALMOST got this girl suspended...until my daughter reminded her teacher that Zero Tolerance is Intolerant. (Yes, she got that from me, but I am a PROUD mom that she was able to say it at 13!)
I will point out that the majority of the mass school shootings so far have been done by middle to upper class "white boys".
.....ON Prozac!
Not exactly. An American parent can only choose which school his/her child will not go to ... and only by opting out of the public school system entirely ... and enrolling his/her child in a private or parochial [religious] school. I did it when my daughter was very young ... and it was a very, very expensive "choice".
There were also nurses at the school for a blood drive who tried to help the student until EMS arrived. The student apparently had swallowed approximately half of a hamburger. The nurses were able to get some of the airway cleared, but couldn't remove all the food.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.