Five East Hall High School Navy Junior ROTC students were recognized by the Hall County School Board Monday for their efforts in assisting a serious crash scene while on a trip to San Diego, California in March.
White Sulphur Elementary School Paraprofessional Marie Hood said the students were among more than 20 from the school who made the trip. She said she was chaperoning the five cadets at Mission Beach around midnight when a man crashed an electric scooter on a nearby boardwalk.
"It was probably one of the worst sounds these (cadets) have ever heard. This gentleman's head hit concrete so hard we could hear it over the waves and the music we were listening to," Hood said.
Hood said the victim of the crash was seriously injured and the cadets began to assist with the scene. Freshman Cadet Erin Hood, Marie Hood's daughter, said the cadets knew how to approach the scene due to their JROTC training.
"We saw his family trying to move him off the ground and we ran over and that's when we got involved," Erin Hood said. "My mom and (cadet) Jorge (Renteria) started making sure that the family wasn't picking him up and that they were leaving him on the ground. Jorge and I called 9-1-1 and the rest of us were pretty much just keeping people away because people were starting to really crowd up."
Hood said the cadets flagged down the abulance. After emergency crews took the man from the scene, the students were interviewed by the San Diego Police Department. Marie Hood said police responding to the scene were initially surprised that teenagers assisted the victim, but were reassured upon learning that the students were JROTC cadets.
Marie Hood, who is CPR-certified, said she administered first aid while the cadets managed the scene.
"They were acting on their own instinct," Hood said.
The students had been learning basic CPR as part of the JROTC program according to Erin Hood, but she said the incident taught them lessons they didn't learn in the classroom.
"I think we've all seen things, like we've seen car accidents before, we've seen accidents before, but we've never been involved," Hood said. "It really showed me that time is critical with stuff like this."
Hall County Schools Superintendent Will Schofield said he was proud of how the cadets handled the situation.
"We're always looking for those opportunities where our students just go above and beyond," Schofield said at Monday's school board meeting. "One of the things that we've made a commitment to this community is that we put young people out into our community that are a value add, that take care of their neighbor...when that young man needed some help, they were there and that's what it's all about."
The incident repotedly happened around midnight on the night of March 30 according to Hood.
The other cadets involved were juniors Mayetta Jones and Gisselle Espinoza and sophomore Ivan Perez.
