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Jameel Aziz knows the consequences when a person’s heart stops beating.
The School District 57 superintendent was a teacher in Kamloops at John Peterson Junior High School in the 1990s when a student suffered cardiac arrest during gym class.
“He was a hockey player, super-fit, but just obviously had some kind of genetic condition — and really, the conversation began then that in places of high activity, we certainly should have defibrillators in place,” said Aziz.
“There was a concerted effort to make sure that they were in high schools, which are used for a lot of community activities — whether it’s adult league volleyball or basketball — as a public service, we wanted to have them in place. We haven’t got to the point where each of our elementary schools has them, and that’s the next step for us.”
All nine School District 57 secondary schools are now equipped with AEDs.
That includes D.P. Todd, Duchess Park, Shas Ti Kelly Road, College Heights and Prince George Secondary, as well as schools in Mackenzie, Valemount and McBride. Two elementary schools in Prince George — Spruceland and Lac des Bois — where students have medical conditions that require it, also have the life-saving machines installed.
In addition, the SD57 board office, maintenance building and John McInnis alternate education site all have AEDs.
Funding for those devices came largely as a result of the Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation securing a $36,000 donation from the RBC Foundation in June 2012. That funding paid for six AEDs, 24 training units, 24 training mannequins and training for 40 teachers to become AED/CPR instructors.
Cedars Christian School and the three Prince George Catholic elementary schools — St. Mary’s, Sacred Heart and Immaculate Conception — also have AEDs.
Last weekend, at the BC School Trustees Association annual meeting in Vancouver, a motion was passed asking the education ministry to provide funding so every school in the province could have a defibrillator installed.
“Whether that gets any traction with government, I don’t know — but it certainly is on everybody’s radar,” said Aziz. “All it takes is one incident to regret you didn’t have it in place.”
The young hockey player in Kamloops did not survive.
“I remember the impact on the students and the school community. It was a shock, because here’s this high-level athlete, and you wouldn’t think that kind of thing was going to happen,” said Aziz. “But we’re seeing it more and more — these undiagnosed heart defects or issues that people have — and if a defibrillator can make a difference, then it’s worth every penny to have it in place.”
In January, the Vancouver School Board voted unanimously to request $250,000 from the province to pay for AEDs in all 107 of its schools. The move followed the lead of several Greater Vancouver districts that began installing the devices in 2019.
“Student voice is really starting to elevate and resonate across the province, so when these things come from students, it’s really hard for us as adults not to listen,” said Aziz. “Clearly there’s a desire to do this — but everybody’s got some tight funds, and a lot of districts have deficits, so they would like the government to fund putting these in place. But short of that, we will have conversations about what we can do to start adding more defibrillators to more sites here.”
There is no government mandate requiring AEDs in schools, but BC appears to be leaning in that direction. Minister of Education and Child Care Lisa Beare has indicated she would support such legislation.
Aziz said the ministry plans to make AED/CPR training part of the physical education curriculum for all secondary school students, and he expects that will be formally announced this fall. The North Vancouver and North Okanagan-Shuswap school districts have already adopted the initiative.
In February 2019, South Okanagan Secondary School teachers Steve Podomorow and Mike Russo used an AED and CPR to resuscitate a 13-year-old boy whose heart stopped during gym class. That came less than a week after the school district announced its plan to install AEDs in all its schools.
In Vancouver, a group of students from Point Grey Secondary School fundraised and petitioned the board for months to install an AED they purchased after a Grade 11 student collapsed and died when his heart stopped during a basketball practice in 2022.
While Manitoba and Ontario require AED installation and maintenance in all high-traffic public places, BC currently has no such legal requirement — despite repeated attempts by former Prince George–Valemount MLA Shirley Bond, who tried three times to pass her private member’s Defibrillator Public Access Act.
During her last term as MLA, Bond met with the Vancouver students and was impressed with their determination to get an AED installed in their school.
“I want to commend the students who worked so hard to raise the issue of AEDs in schools after losing a friend. It was an incredible effort for them to raise this issue, not just with the school district — they arranged a meeting with Premier Eby and the minister of education,” said Bond.
“Most people would think that one of the most prominent places where there should be AEDs would be a school. Most cardiac arrests happen in neighbourhoods, so schools are a logical and important place.
“It can literally be the difference between life and death. There is no dollar value you can assign to the loss of a teenager who collapses at a practice.”
