Alice Deegan is a hero.

She is a wife. A mother. A sixth-grade teacher at Paris Elementary School.

And, on Monday she was recognized for saving the life of a student who had swallowed a water bottle cap.

Just before the Thanksgiving recess, Mrs. Deegan was in the school cafeteria when she noticed a sixth-grader starting to panic because he couldn’t breathe. Trained on the Heimlich maneuver, she didn’t hesitate and acted to free the cap from the boy’s throat.

“The student is alive and well today because she got involved and had the knowledge to do it,” according to SAD 17 Superintendent Richard Colpitts.

That’s true, but it’s really much more than that.

The student is alive because Mrs. Deegan knows her students and pays attention to what they’re doing.

This is the second time she’s saved a student’s life. The first time was about 20 years ago, according to Colpitts, when she saved a Rowe Elementary School student from neighboring Norway.

We could offer praise, but we’ll let our readers do that.

According to Beth Miller, writing on the Sun Journal’s Facebook page, Mrs. Deegan “taught all four of our sons. What a wonderful person she is. I was not at all surprised to see that when something had to be done quickly and decisively, Alice stepped forward.”

Virginia Robinson, whose daughter is currently in Mrs. Deegan’s class, expressed pride and gratitude for the teacher’s quick response. “She’s a HERO!”

And, former student Marlene Young remembers being in Mrs. Deegan’s classroom as a fourth-grader. “I loved her so much! This is wonderful that she was able to help the child in need! So glad to see she is still teaching!”

Mrs. Deegan is not the only hero teacher. There are teachers like her all across this country who have done extraordinary things for our children.

Last fall in South Carolina, Tanglewood Middle School math teacher Amy Amidon performed Heimlich on middle-schooler Alex Smith after she saw him choking on a hotdog. She had learned the procedure — which the American Red Cross now calls an “abdominal thrust” — in college and told NBC “there was no option, so I just did it.”

All schools in Greenville County, where Tanglewood Middle is, are required to have 10 staff members trained as first responders. Although Amidon is not one of those designated responders, she knew what to do and knew she had help close by.

In Maine, teachers are not required to be trained in Heimlich or in CPR.

Many of our readers wonder why. They suggest choking safety and CPR should be mandatory when working with children, particularly when children are eating meals at school.

Even though Maine doesn’t have a 10-responder mandate at each school, according to the Department of Education it is common for school administrators to ensure they have enough staff trained to be available to respond to emergencies like the one Mrs. Deegan faced in Paris.

But, if it’s not required, how can schools really ensure they have trained responders available?

The typical cost of a CPR class can run $100 and the initial class takes an entire day to complete. And, if a person wants to maintain certification, there are additional classes and costs. That’s a lot to expect a teacher to voluntarily take on.

“Alice Deegan would probably say this was all in a day’s work,” reader Tabby Crab told us, but she politely disagreed. “Ms. Deegan cared enough to equip herself with knowledge, and just demonstrated the importance of that knowledge to her students. So, although the word ‘hero’ will come to the lips of many, the word ‘example’ holds much greater impact.”

Agreed.

Her actions are a tremendous example of her willingness to take on training at her own cost, and to employ that training at the instant it was needed. She is an example of preparedness and calm, of training and action. Of devotion to her students.

But, unless and until Maine requires a minimal level of basic life-saving training in our classrooms, we have no real expectation that there is a Mrs. Deegan out there ready to help every child.

In South Carolina, parents have that expectation because training is required in each school.

Shouldn’t we have that expectation, too? Couldn’t we organize centralized training in school districts to minimize cost and ensure that our teachers, who spend most of the day with our children, are as prepared as Mrs. Deegan?

We should and we can.

jmeyer@sunjournal.com

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.

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