Concussion Plan

Automatic External Defibrillator (AED)

Bement’s AEDs are housed in alarmed, wall-mounted cabinets inside the main entrance to the Kittredge Building on the Main Campus, and on the North End on the first floor of Jackson House, in the shed portion of the garage at the Mary Hawks House, and in the classroom at Pine Hill. Signs on the outside of the buildings indicate that an AED is located inside the door to the building. Faculty and staff receive CPR/AED and First Aid training provided by Life Support Systems. In addition to this training, Life Support Systems also provides semi-annual service inspections and on-site emergency service calls to maintain the AEDs in a ready state.

Concussion Plan

When a student sustains a concussion, that student may need some help. The student should speak with the upper school or lower school head and the nurse daily to assess whether symptoms of concussion are affecting academic work and to strategize how to proceed. A concussed student will require accommodation in completing academic assignments. As time progresses, the school nurse, a school administrator, and the student’s primary care provider will help the student determine what accommodations are appropriate on a course-by-course basis and when those accommodations are no longer necessary. All students diagnosed with concussions will follow a return to learn plan. Day students follow the return to learn plan given to them by their pediatricians and boarding students follow the school’s return to learn plan with daily assessments by the school nurse and frequent evaluations by the medical director until cleared to begin the return to play plan. Please keep the following in mind: • Common post-concussion symptoms include headache, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, tiredness, and disturbances of sleep and mood. • When recovering from a concussion, cognitive effort, such as that required for reading, studying, writing, and engaging in class participation may aggravate symptoms and prolong concussion recovery. • In general, students can not engage in significant cognitive effort if they have more than a minimal level of post-concussion symptoms. Any activity that significantly worsens symptoms should be stopped. - If doing homework causes increased symptoms, students should stop that effort until their symptoms improve.