Last month, Kingston City School District (KCSD) security officer Donald Checksfield and teaching assistant Carol Fusco each rose to the occasion to help choking students at J. Watson Bailey Middle School by performing the Heimlich maneuver.
The Heimlich maneuver is performed by standing behind a choking person and placing one’s hands just above the victim’s abdomen. By applying quick, inward and upward pressure, air is forced from the lungs, which can help dislodge the object blocking the airway. Checksfield and Fusco had both previously trained in applying the Heimlich maneuver.
“Their quick response exemplifies the district’s commitment to maintaining a safe and supportive school environment,” said a statement by district officials.
Checksfield is primarily assigned to either Bailey of M. Clifford Miller middle schools and occasionally at Kingston High. On the day in question he was observing students in Bailey’s cafeteria B during a lunch period.
“One of the students came up to me, and I thought he was going to ask me a question,” said Checksfield. “But he was pointing to his throat and I asked him, ‘Are you choking?’He couldn’t answer and he was shaking his head so then as soon as that happened, I came around the banister and took him to the side to perform the Heimlich maneuver.”
What Checksfield dislodged was a chicken nugget.
“I took him to the bathroom, I cleaned him all up, washed his hands and all that, and then the nurses took over from there,” Checksfield said. “They took him up to the nurse’s office and checked him out to make sure everything was all right and he was OK.”
After checking out the student and notifying his parents, Checksfield said the nurses returned him to the cafeteria and he finished out his day at school.
Prior to coming to the KCSD, Checksfield spent 25 years as a corrections officer at the Eastern Correctional Facility, a state prison in Napanoch. The Heimlich was part of an annual training regimen for officers there. Even so, it didn’t come up too often at Eastern Correctional Facility. Ever.
“I mean this was the first time I’ve ever had to actually do it like for real,” Checksfield said. “We’d do it all the time for training, but that was training.”
He said he was grateful he was trained in applying the Heimlich maneuver, not just for professional reasons, but also as a parent.
“I have two daughters, two kids of my own,” he said. “God forbid if you have to do something at home, but at least you know how to do it.”
Checksfield said he’s received plenty of accolades from staff in both the school and district, and got a big hug from the student’s mother a few days after the incident. He added that he was surprised that the same thing happened in the same school in the same month.
Carol Fusco is primarily a teaching assistant in a fifth grade classroom with several ENL students.
“I just help them especially with their language arts, their assignments and also math or other things,” she said. “I try to be there for them. You know as the teacher is teaching, and if they’re confused I try to clarify things.”
In this case, the incident took place in the classroom during fourth period, when students are allowed to have a snack at their desks. At first, Fusco was unaware of anything concerning happening.
“The student went up to the teacher who was teaching a class and I was dealing with some other students at a table, and the teacher shouted to me, “Do you know how to do the Heimlich maneuver?” Fusco said. “I turned and I looked at (the student) and I could see his face was red and he was in obvious distress. And I really didn’t think about it. I just acted on it and after about maybe four or five pushes he started to cough and when he started to cough I just said can you breathe? He nodded his head up and down. And then he slowly started to speak and I let him cough and that was it.”
What Fusco dislodged was a piece of popcorn.
Like Checksfield, Fusco had also been trained in the use of the Heimlich maneuver, but she’d actually used it before.
“I’ve done it at least once on my own daughter,” she said. “I don’t think it was serious choking, but she seemed to be having an obstruction and I did it quickly on her.”
But until last month, Fusco had never had to rush to action in the classroom before. In the moment, it all happened quite suddenly.
“At the time when the teacher had that look of distress and I saw the student’s face, I didn’t really have time to think,” she said. “I just I just grabbed him and did it. And after the fact, I sat down and I realized you know all this could’ve been worse.”
Like Checksfield, Fusco has received many accolades from people in and out of the district.
“Anyone faced with that situation would do the exact same thing,” she said. “It just sort of instinctively happened.”
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