COPE School Trustee Suzie Mah's Motions for Life-Saving Defibrillators in Schools Pass Unanimously
2025-01-28
Vancouver, BC - COPE's Suzie Mah introduced two successful motions to Vancouver School Board to advocate for life saving defibrillators, and to ask the Province of BC to fund them with new and ongoing funding.
"Now that COPE's motions were supported unanimously, the work begins for us all to put pressure on our provincial government to fully fund AEDs in every public school and district building." said Suzie Mah today, "Cash-strapped school boards across BC should not have to make cuts for AEDs when their budgets are already inadequate to meet student needs. Lives can be saved if the Province of BC acts now."
In 2022, there was a tragic cardiac arrest death at Point Grey Secondary School where a young person lost their life. AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators) have an 85%+ success rate for cardiac arrest if they are used within the first few minutes.
Due to budget shortages at the VSB, students with disabilities are being frequently deprived of provincially-funded support staff. If you account for inflation, the buying power of the VSB budget is shrinking. To make matters worse, the amount of funding-per-student in the VSB budget is going down because a growing share is going to senior managers and people who don't work directly with students.
The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) has been fighting for students, teachers, and families on Vancouver School Board since 1968. COPE is always on the side of the people.
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