In 2016, the state of California passed Assembly Bill AB-1719 which requires schools to implement CPR training as part of the health education course that students are required to take prior to graduating.

This spring, FUHS officially began implementing this requirement by having all freshmen and seniors complete the CPR training course using dummies donated by a community member to the high school district.

Principal Laura Rubio believes this training will benefit students greatly and hopes that they will be better prepared for any type of emergency.

“I think it’s important for all of us to be able to help each other in case of an emergency,” Principal Rubio said. “I’d like to know that students are at least a little better prepared than before. With the changing issues in our society, we never know when we’re going to be faced with an emergency.”

Even though this bill was passed in 2016, it has taken FJUHSD three years to officially begin training students as it was a process that took detailed planning and learning through a trial and error process.

“Laws like AB-1719 take a while to trickle down into the actual implementation of it. Our school district began implementation with the pilot at BPHS,” Principal Rubio said.

Training began last year at Buena Park High School where students underwent the CPR training and were observed to see how long this training would take, how it would work, and what issues need to be resolved.

“Now the rest of us will take our turn, and by the end of the school year, all of us would [sic.] have trained our freshman and seniors,” Principal Rubios said.

Senior Ashlyn Keobouala is one of the seniors at FUHS who has completed the CPR training course, and she believes it taught her an important life skill.

“It’s a useful tool to have because you never know when someone’s life could be on the line, and if someone knows how to do CPR, then they could save their life,” Keobouala said.

In a society plagued with the constant possibility of being involved in an emergency, this CPR training could be the difference between life and death.