Things that happen in class...

[intertext]

So, one of my students had a "petit mal" epileptic seizure today during Peer Editing. Hardly anyone, except me and the members of her editing group, even noticed, which is extremely surreal. She came to a stop - she was just... stopped, and I went up and said, " *student* are you okay?" and she quite obviously wasn't, so I was thinking "oh, gee, what shall I do???" and I just touched her and spoke to her and apparently that was the right thing to do because she came out of it and said she was okay... But it made me think "fuck - what do I do if there was a genuine emergency?" Of course, nowadays you can depend on one of your students having a cell phone (in fact, I have a cell phone in the bag I have with me), but even so - what would you do??

Comments

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I'd curse myself for not having taken more first aid and not keeping my CPR up to date -- *reminds self*

and then I'd ask if there were any EMTs in class (we have lots of volunteer fire departments here), get them down to keep an eye on things, and call 911. And after that, call public safety.

I think we are technically supposed to call the health center on campus, now that I think about it. And they have an EMT. So I might call them first.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

All this was complicated and I think my sense of helplessness was compounded by the fact that it was my night class, and the campus is pretty much shut. We have trained first-aid people, but of course they are not at work after 5:00. Thinking about it now, I remember where the "break this glass in an emergency" phone is, but I doubt I would have at the time. You have to thank heavens for the fact that every student in the class these days has a cell phone.