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Education News
Cait Kelley
St. Paul

Bill would require school coaches to be trained in CPR and AED

Illinois New Laws
High school and middle school coaches in Minnesota would have to be trained in how to use automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, like this one under a bill moving at the Minnesota Capitol.
Seth Perlman | AP

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A bill that would require all Minnesota high school coaches to be trained in CPR and to use an AED got bipartisan support in a state Senate committee Monday.

Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth, the chief sponsor of the bill, said voting for it should be the “easiest yes vote that anyone should take this year” because it doesn’t require legislative funding. Schools can access cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, and automated external defibrillator, or AED, training for free through many organizations.

Not all coaches and assistant coaches at Minnesota schools are currently trained to do CPR or use an AED. Advocates of the bill say that puts students in danger because sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in young athletes.

Parents of students who have suffered spontaneous cardiac arrest while playing sports testified in favor of the bill at a meeting of the Senate Education Policy Committee Monday. 

Minnesota high schooler Gianna Tirevold collapsed in August 2025 and almost died while playing at a softball tournament in Lakeville. Danielle Tirevold, who is a registered nurse, recognized her daughter was in cardiac arrest and said she performed CPR for so long her knees bled until an AED arrived to shock her back to life. Then she said she had to correct the first responders about proper AED placement.

A woman holds a tissue to her chest while testifying in front of a government committee.
Danielle Tirevold, whose daughter suffered sudden cardiac arrest while playing softball, testifies in front of the Minnesota Senate Education Policy Committee Monday.
Courtesy of Minnesota Senate Media Services

“Ensuring coaches are trained in CPR and AED use is not an extra burden. It's a critical safety standard,” Tirevold said while holding back tears. “We shouldn't have to stand by and watch a mother do everything in her power with her own two hands to save her child while everybody else stands and prays because they don't know what else to do.”

Gianna’s coach, Rick Thomas, told the committee he wasn’t CPR-trained and supports the bill.

“It was the most helpless feeling in this world that I've experienced, to see someone you care so much about dying in front of you, and you don't have the training to know how to help them,” Thomas said.

Sen. Zach Duckworth, R-Lakeville, is a volunteer firefighter and said he knows personally how critical CPR training is.

"The number-one life-saving intervention for cardiac arrest is high-quality CPR — even better if you have an AED handy — so, important conversation to have,” Duckworth said.

The committee approved the bill on a bipartisan voice vote and sent it to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.