Committee advances bill to add ‘Stop the Bleed’ training to high‑school health classes

Madam Chair opened the session and the committee took up House Bill 1014, sponsored for presentation by Representative Julie Mayberry and Senator Bledsoe. Representative Julie Mayberry recounted a weekend emergency involving a family member to illustrate the need for basic hemorrhage‑control skills in communities: “the chainsaw came down the wrong way and cut a slash in his leg about 10 inches from the knee up,” she said, and credited quick action with preventing a fatality.

Major Clayton Goddard, a Little Rock paramedic and facilitator for the Stop the Bleed program, told the committee that a multi‑stakeholder group drafted a plan in 2017 to infuse a two‑hour Stop the Bleed course into Arkansas schools and train school nurses as instructors for sustainability. “Trauma is the number 1 killer in The United States for persons ages 1 to 45,” Goddard said, arguing that minutes before professional responders arrive are critical and that bystander skills can save lives.

Goddard outlined a proposed approach in which school nurses would be trained to certify other staff, participating districts could obtain grant funds for wall‑mounted trauma kits, and the course would be placed within existing health classes for students in grades 9–12. He said there is no certification cost for instructors and that many districts and first‑responder academies already hold equipment and trainers.

After brief discussion, the committee moved immediate consideration and a do‑pass motion; by voice vote the committee approved the bill to move forward. The committee did not record a roll‑call vote in the transcript; approval was noted as a successful voice vote.

The bill now advances from committee toward further consideration in the Legislature; sponsors and witnesses said they would continue outreach on implementation details including equipment placement and instructor training funding.