On May 18 and 19, junior Noah Pereles brought a sergeant to CHS to teach fellow students how to perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).

According to Pereles, the purpose of this event was to give anyone who wanted to know CPR an outlet to learn it through. CPR training will be a graduation requirement starting next year, and Pereles wanted to provide students with an opportunity to learn how to do it.

As a lifeguard himself, Pereles understands the need for training in CPR, and since the junior class is unable to learn through the school, he thought it would be a good idea to bring in Sargent Custead of the Sandy Spring Fire Department to do the training.

Custead explained how to properly care for individuals of all ages. For babies, the individual doing CPR should only be applying force to their chests with two fingers, while for adults, the protocol is to use both hands, clasped and directly over the individual who needs CPR. The hand placement should be one inch below the breast line, and an individual who is not breathing should receive 30 compressions for every two breaths given, to the tune of “Stayin Alive” by the Bee Gees, for a minute.

This event gave students the ability to learn how and when to give CPR, however, participants would have to pay the American Heart Association to be officially certified.

Although already incorporated in this year’s health classes, those who previously took health were unable to learn how to save an unconscious and not-breathing individual, so the upperclassmen benefited greatly from Pereles’ efforts.

“It was an amazing experience,” junior Danielle Katz said. “I want to be able to save my friends lives if they choked.”

Pereles is trying to set up a training session next year as well, but has no formal plans at the moment.

“Noah did a great job today,” school nurse Deborah Stapleton said. “He took the initiative to provide an excellent opportunity for students to learn about steps to help save a person’s life.”