CUMMING, Ga. — It was around this time six years ago that a lone gunman killed 28 people an injured at least two others inside a school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The Sandy Hook School shooting changed the way we talk about security in schools, and sparked a new program in Georgia called "Stop the Bleed." It trains students and teachers how to use a trauma tourniquet to stop bleeding if something like that ever happens here.
"Most of those students who passed away could’ve been saved if they had been able to stop their bleeding injuries," said Kathy Gregory, a nurse at Cumming Elementary School.
Georgia held tight to that idea. Everyone has different thoughts on how to stop a gunman, but you can teach someone how to stop a bleed.
"The number one killer of people ages 1 to 44 is trauma, and the biggest thing people can do to save lives for people out of the hospital is bleeding control," Billy Kunkle said, system planner for Georgia Trauma Commission (GTC).
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal gave the GTC $1 million to implement this program.
"With that million dollars we were able to buy 29,000 [bleeding control] kits," Kunkle said.
The program has been in schools for about a year now. Gregory has trained all the staff at her school how to use the bright orange tourniquets that come in the kits.
"This is how I check off our staff members," she said as she held up a training arm made of lime green pool noodle.
As soon as everyone was trained, the GTC gave them their kits packed with everything necessary to treat a major bleed in an emergency.
She had no idea how soon she'd use it.
"The fire department delivered our kits one day, and our accident happened the very next day," Gregory said. "I hadn't even taken them out of the box."
A fourth grader fell on the playground and broke her arm, but this time the bone severed an artery and she was losing blood fast.
"If I didn't have that kit, I would have been using anything I could find, a shoestring, maybe my own hands. I don't know, just anything to get that arm to stop bleeding," Gregory said. "We definitely needed a tourniquet to help save her arm."
Her arm -- and maybe even her life.
Now, the school keeps a kit hanging right by the playground. They also keep one in the cafeteria, the media center, the nurse's office, the front office, and every major hallway.
The kits have saved three other students at different schools: one after a pottery incident in Gwinnett County, another after a stabbing in Twiggs County, and again for an amputation in Henry County when a door closed on a child's fingers.
Pretty soon, every public school will have at least 12 kits to hang as they please -- and even more to stock school buses.
"I think the more people who know how to use them, the more successful the program will be," Gregory said.
Currently, the kits are in 1,900 of the 2,300 schools in Georgia. So far, the GTC has trained 60,000 people on how to use them. The training is done completely by volunteers.
Kunkle said to expect the issue to come up in the next legislative session. A Senate subcommittee is looking at placing one in every classroom and possibly making it part of a high schooler's required CPR class.