Sen. Sue Prrentice presses for trauma kits and tourniquets in public schools

Sen. Sue Prrentice (District 5) told the Senate Education Committee she is sponsoring SB 429 to require trauma kits—tourniquets and bleeding-control supplies—in public schools and to establish a fund to support purchase and placement across the state. The sponsor said the measure builds on an earlier effort that placed roughly 500 tourniquets in state-owned buildings and aims to give bystanders immediate tools to stop life‑threatening hemorrhage.

The bill would direct Administrative Services, in consultation with the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and the EMS medical control board, to determine how many trauma kits are needed per school, identify priority locations within school buildings, and set placement criteria and a schedule for future deployment. Prentice emphasized coordination with local EMS and said school staff would not be required to use the kits: "we'd like them to, but they're not required to use them," she told the committee.

Medical witnesses urged the committee to view early bleeding control as a basic, time-sensitive intervention. A trauma program manager from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center said adult-size, combat-style tourniquets and combat gauze are effective in school-age children and that improvised tourniquets are less reliable. Surgeon Nick Paransovich recounted the development of "Stop the Bleed" programs and their spread after mass-casualty events. Emergency physician Dr. Mark Gman said uncontrolled bleeding is "the leading preventable cause of death after traumatic injury" and described bystander bleeding control as analogous to bystander CPR.

Committee members asked whether training would be required and about liability for nonprofessionals who use the kits. Prentice said she was not proposing a training mandate: "I'm not requiring training because these have been placed successfully without training and have been easy to deploy," and she noted Good Samaritan protections apply to volunteers in New Hampshire.

The bill includes an appropriation and creates a trauma kit fund intended to accept grants and donations; the sponsor disputed a higher fiscal estimate from the Department of Safety and said many schools already have some supplies. She asked the committee to focus spending on core kit contents rather than on costly mounting cases.

What's next: The committee closed the hearing after demonstrations were offered and moved to the next bill. SB 429 will proceed through the committee process where fiscal and implementation details, including the number of kits per building and fund amounts, will be further defined.