West End Students Receive Red Cross Safety Training

As part of Health and Safety Week, all fifth graders at Lynbrook’s recently received safety training from Sarah Pooley, the regional coordinator of the NYS Citizen Preparedness Program of the American Red Cross in Greater New York.

Students broke up into groups to study scenario cards that contained pictures of unsafe situations or actions to avoid in the kitchen, on the playground, on the road and in their medicine cabinets. They were asked to study the cards, find as many unsafe situations as they could on each, share their findings with their classmates, and suggest safer alternatives.

Among the unsafe situations they identified were people standing on swings, going down headfirst on slides, burning candles near curtains, putting screwdrivers in electrical sockets, and keeping dangerous chemicals such as ammonia and drain cleaner in the medicine cabinet.

Among the safety precautions suggested were to always wear a helmet when bicycling, look both ways before crossing the street, and keep medications properly labeled and out of the reach of children.

At the end of the workshop, each student received a book containing basic aid training and more tips on avoiding unsafe situations.

This was one of several activities that took place during Health and Safety Week - at the beginning of the week, the entire school participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters presented child safety tips, the conducted a fire safety demonstration, and the LIRR held a train safety presentation.