ABILENE, Texas — Starting January 1, 2020 all school districts in the state of Texas are required to have a bleeding control program implemented.
House Bill 496 requires bleeding control kits and school personnel training at each campus.
The idea of the bill was introduced by Wylie Independent School District. They’ve been supplying kits and committing to training their staff for about four years now.
"I was on governor Abbott's round table discussion…when we were talking about ways to improve school safety and limiting causalities and saving lives,” Wylie ISD assistant superintendent, Craig Bessent said.
The bill requires each kit include a tourniquet, two compressed gauze dressings, one trauma dressing, nitrile gloves, scissors, and instructional documents adopted by the agency.
Wylie ISD goes above and beyond by supplying a kit in every classroom, school bus, cafeterias, and custodial closets.
“We've trained over 800 people in our district how to use these techniques to save lives" Bessent said.