Archdiocese's health and safety education summit at Kennedy High School shows 'knowledge is power'

Submitted on June 23, 2010

By Barbara Watkins | bwatkins@archstl.org

Tim Goedeke and his firefighting partner Al Sprehe, obscured at right, used a fire extinguisher under the supervision of instructor Russell Thompson to put out a controlled burn during Crisis Response Training at the Health and Safety Summit June 16 at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School. Thompson, an instructor with the Missouri Center for Safe Schools at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, led a workshop on Search and Rescue/ Hazardous Material Response. Sprehe is from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in University City, and Goedeke is from Sts. Joachim and Ann Parish in St. Charles.

Sid Hastings

More than 200 members of the Catholic school community turned out June 16 to learn how to keep their students and staffs safe and healthy.

The inaugural Health and Safety Education Summit of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, held at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Manchester, featured 17 sessions on a variety of topics, including weight room and science classroom safety issues, bloodborne pathogen safety, search and rescue and hazardous materials. Diabetes, eating disorders, smoking and asthma and allergies were also addressed.