PALM HARBOR, Fla. \u2014 Palm Harbor Fire Rescue hosted a specialized CPR class for people who are deaf or hard of hearing after a child drowned in Palm Harbor last year.<\/p>\n
The class, taught with the help of American Sign Language interpreters, included Jasmine Torrence, a medical behavior assistant for Pinellas County Schools, and about a dozen other students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be able to get this certification for my job,\u201d Torrence said through interpreter Benjamin Jackson.<\/p>\n
Torrence\u2019s 3-year-old son, Kyrie, drowned in a pond by their apartment in April 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loved playing and he was such a happy young boy,\u201d Torrence said. \u201cI loved his voice and hearing him all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Willi, public information officer for Palm Harbor Fire Rescue, said Torrence told her after the drowning that she had not been able to take a CPR class because there were no classes available in American Sign Language.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis a demographic that we never reached before, and it\u2019s something that we need to reach not only with CPR, but also with fire and life safety programs,\u201d Willi said.<\/p>\n
It was the second CPR class Palm Harbor Fire Rescue has organized for people with hearing issues, with support from other organizations. Willi said CPR is a skill everyone should know.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just had actually an incident yesterday on the trail and somebody that was passing by started CPR,\u201d Willi said. \u201cShe was a nurse and she saved his life right before first responders were able to get there. So it\u2019s definitely necessary for everyone to know how to do CPR.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willi and Torrence also have raised $6,000 for free swim lessons at the Palm Harbor YMCA. Some of the lessons are specifically for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want for all children to be as safe as possible,\u201d Torrence said. \u201cFor them to have swimming lessons for them to stay safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willi said they hope to offer ASL CPR classes quarterly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALM HARBOR, Fla. \u2014 Palm Harbor Fire Rescue hosted a specialized CPR class for people who are deaf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3948,6466,571,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,1374,835],"class_list":["post-410850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-health","tag-app-latest-health-stories","tag-health","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-tyler-oneill","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}