To keep DS off school tomorrow after classmate’s seizure?

[Grey0]

DS (14) had quite a distressing experience at school today and I’m unsure what to do for tomorrow. Would appreciate some thoughts.

On the way back from PE to their next lesson, one of DS’s classmates (not a close friend, just someone in his year group) had a seizure. They were still outside at the time. DS was with a couple of others when it happened. He’s been volunteering with St John’s Ambulance and said he recognised it straight away. He put his jacket under the boy’s head, made sure he was safe etc, but said the boy hit his head as he went down and later cut his lip during a second seizure. Other friends ran to get a teacher and they ended up calling an ambulance.

DS went on to his next lesson after giving his account but he’s come home really quiet and clearly a bit shaken. He’s not normally one for drama or fuss so it’s unusual for him to be this subdued. He keeps going over it in his head and saying he’s not sure if he did enough or did the right thing (even though it sounds like he did brilliantly under the circumstances).

He’s not close to the boy but obviously it was a lot to witness. WIBU to keep him off school tomorrow so he can decompress a bit? Or is that an overreaction? I just feel like he’s still processing it all.

Can everyone stop adultifying a 14 year old child. He’s already been affected by an experience OP has said. That’s the focus.

It’s irrelevant what an adult professional paramedic would or would not be required to do.
The DS is neither an adult nor a paramedic, that’s why those adult professionals were emergency called to come and deal with the situation.
Ds is not ‘trained’ and his ‘training’ did not ‘kick in’ as multiple posters have been saying- he is a 14 year old, a volunteer cadet with a voluntary service. So in a few (4?) years’ time if he carries on, he’d ready to be described as trained (and will still need to call the emergency services in such a situation) but not now. He’s a kid stressing out about whether he responded rightly, which is a burden he shouldn’t have to take on.

I don’t think he should be told to get over it. I do think he should be encouraged to get over it.

My child did and was grand the next day. Why would they automatically be off?

Because not all kids or people recover from seizures as quickly as your child.

This poster didn’t say automatically off

You said wouldn't keep the child who had the seizure off,

which indicates that any severity of seizure… you’d be nudging them in to school the next day @Snugglemonkey

He should go to school. It’s good to reflect with others who were there and I’m sure the school will be holding some sort of educational debrief.

Did he go op?

Absolutely this.

He’s a child who shouldn’t be expected to have adult responsibilities or adult responses to something distressing. If he’s not usually a drama queen and not usually so subdued and self-questioning, then maybe ‘crack on’ is not the message he needs to hear right now.

Maybe he needs to hear that it’s ok to be shaky and take some time. It’s possible to behave in a mature way in a crisis and yet not be mature enough to handle the consequent emotions, especially near the end of the school year when everyone is tired anyway.