The speedy responses of Paducah Middle School students and staff saved a student from choking during lunch yesterday.

Paducah Middle sixth grader Jenna Lumbley was eating lunch when some food got stuck in her throat.

“It was obviously scary,” said Lumbley. “I could tell that I was choking. It was pretty easy to spot.”

Jenna’s friend, Tabitha Donaldson, recognized that Jenna was choking and jumped into action.

“I saw Jenna choking so I tried to do the Heimlich maneuver then I started banging on her back but that didn’t work so I ran to get Ms. Stewart.” Donaldson said.

At the same time English teacher Hope Morris realized that Jenna was choking and ran to Jenna and began performing the Heimlich maneuver.

“Tabitha was trying to help Jenna,” said Morris. “At first I wasn’t sure what was going on. Then I realized that Jenna was choking so I took off running, looked at her, and asked if she could breathe. She shook her head ‘no’. I started to do the Heimlich on her but was not successful. That’s when Mr. Davis took over and got it dislodged.”

Art Davis, who serves on the administrative staff at Paducah Middle, said that he had used the Heimlich maneuver before when a family member was choking so he knew what to do.

“I was comfortable that I could do it because I had done it before,” said Davis. “Really that’s all I was thinking about- getting over there and getting the food out. But it was Ms. Morris who alerted me. When I saw her running across the cafeteria, I knew she was running for a reason. I knew it could be done-it was just the time factor of getting to her as quickly as possible.”

Paducah Middle School gave Tabitha the “Hero” Award in appreciation of her immediate efforts to help Jenna.

According to the National Safety Council, in 2021 choking was the fourth leading cause of death when looking at deaths caused by unintentional injury. If you’re not aware of how to administer the Heimlich maneuver, we’ve posted an instructional video on our Safety and Security page: www.paducah.kyschools.us/page/safety-and-security

by David Snow

The Paducah Sun

February 3, 2023

Used with permission.

When schools close due to harsh winter weather, a number of factors are considered by the superintendents before making that decision.

Steve Carter of the McCracken County School District and Donald Shively of the Paducah Independent School District spoke with The Sun about what goes into making the decision.

One of the main considerations is if the roads are safe to transport students to and from schools.

“Ultimately, the question is if it’s safe to bring students and faculty and staff into the school district with the idea that we have a large number of students who live outside our Paducah public school boundaries,” Shively said. “And, we have several employees who drive across county lines to work in Paducah public schools.

“One of the major factors in us not being open (Thursday) is we have snow routes that we run at times where we ask kids to walk a little farther; however, they are not ice routes. The significance here is we had ice on many secondary roads across our school district on Wednesday afternoon.”

Once a school district decides to close its schools, it must be determined if it will be a snow day — which will be made up later in the school year — or a nontraditional instruction day, or NTI day.

By law, a school has 10 NTI days to use in a school year. NTI days became widely known when the Kentucky legislature gave school systems and expanded the number of NTI days so students could have their instruction at home.

“Originally, they existed before COVID,” Shively said. “We did not use them pre-COVID, but they really existed for a lot of the flooding and weather in eastern Kentucky and other areas.

“You have to apply for them, and it’s a tool for instruction, remediation and review on inclement weather days.”

The Paducah school system had Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as NTI days, while the McCracken school district took only Wednesday and Thursday as NTI days.

“Tuesday was not an NTI day; it was a traditional snow day,” Carter said. “We’ve said from the very beginning that we want to use as many in-person instructional days as possible, but we also want to have our last student day prior to Memorial Day, that Friday, hoping we’d be able to get back.

“We have a day that we can use as a makeup day and still be able to meet that goal. It’s not something set in stone, but it’s something we try to achieve.”

Public school districts are required to use a minimum of 1,062 instructional hours and 170 instructional school days each year. When schools are unexpectedly closed due to weather or illness, schools make that time up by adding snow days throughout the rest of the school year or expanding the hours that schools are open over a period of time.

When students are at home during NTI days, they may have received instruction during their most recent day at school. Assignments may also be available online or sent home in a packet.

“We have a lot of teachers who use Google Classroom,” Carter said. “The younger grades, they may have sent home packets to be completed over the last couple of days.

“You can also utilize various information systems, like ClassDojo, to communicate to parents for assignments as well.”

Paducah students use a communication app called Kinvo to communicate with students’ parents about changes to the school schedule.

“It sends an email or text message to each parent or guardian across the district,” Shively said. “I think it’s 64 languages that it translates to, based on references to Infinite Campus. That also sends to faculty and staff, and then we put it out to media outlets.”

Carter said that following weather news about approaching storms can give administrators and teachers a heads-up as to how many in-person days are likely to be missed.

Both school systems also have communications programs to help them quickly notify students’ families about changes to the schools’ schedule.

Paducah Tilghman SRO Zane White received the Meritorious Service Award, the second-highest award given by the Paducah Police Department, at an awards ceremony held on February 2.

The Paducah Police Department honored more than 30 officers and civilian employees, and nine Paducah citizens for their outstanding acts of duty and service to the community in 2022.

Officer White received the Meritorious Service Award for his work at a tractor-trailer/pickup truck crash that actually occurred outside the city limits. The pickup truck had caught fire with the driver trapped inside, and city officers were able to respond quickly to assist the deputy on scene. White and the deputy used multiple fire extinguishers to help keep the fire from engulfing the truck.

Without regard for his own safety, Officer White endured heat, nearby flames and heavy smoke to help ensure the safety of the driver. Congratulations, Officer White!

by David Snow, The Paducah Sun

November 23, 2022

Used with permission.

Three officers were sworn in Monday at the Paducah Independent School District Board meeting. They will be the first three officers assigned by the board to the school district’s police department.

Robert Beach, Scotty Davis and Rene Long were sworn in by Family Court Judge Deanna Henschel. Beach will be the school resource officer for McNabb Elementary School, while Davis will serve Morgan Elementary and Long will serve Paducah Tilghman High School.

“Basically, we’ve got a number of officers to serve as a district police office,” said Superintendent Donald Shively. “When we’re dealing with issues like truancy, we can deal with the students.”

Two Paducah Police Department officers also serve as school resource officers. Eric Abbott serves at Paducah Tilghman High School, Gretchen Morgan serves Clark Elementary School and Cassie Ravens serves Paducah Middle School.

The board later approved a resolution for the application for participation in the Kentucky Law Enforcement Foundation Program Fund Training Incentive Program.

The Paducah Independent Schools Police Department was established by the school district board at its Feb. 15, 2021, meeting. The department office is at Paducah Tilghman High School.