When University of Wisconsin senior Aimee Reynoso found a girl unconscious in the bathroom of the downtown bar where she works, she panicked, not fully prepared to handle the situation.
Reynoso, a bartender at Madhatter, 322 W. Gorham St., was one of 40 Madison area bartenders who attended Madison’s Tavern Safety Training Class Tuesday night.
“The class has made me more aware to the dangers of working at a bar, and now I feel more confident in knowing the laws and what to do in my position,” Reynoso said.
The class, coordinated by city and police officials, has been running for the past eight years to train bartenders, owners and bouncers on how to maximize safety in downtown establishments.
“The main objective of the class now is to educate people who work in the tavern industry about their responsibilities regarding the law when it comes to distributing alcohol,” said Carrie Hemming, a Madison police officer who teaches part of the course. “We want to give them tools to effectively deal with people who have been drinking.”
The program was originally part of Safer Bars, which educated bar employees across the country until grant money ran out in 2004.
Since then, the Madison Police Department and other city officials have formed their own safety training class similar to Safer Bars but tailored to address Madison’s needs through past experiences.
The program has since evolved and changed based on the input of those who have attended previous classes, Hemming added.
At the Tuesday training session, employees were taught how to handle situations that commonly arise at bars — like how to avoid overcapacity, fire hazards and underage drinking.
The instructors urged bar employees to know the dangers of breaking or bending the law while doing their jobs.
“For me it was more of a refresher course on the basic bar rules, but [the program] brought up good points for how to have basic plan to be proactive in tough situations,” said John Fisk, a bartender at The Old Fashioned, 23 N. Pinckney St.
Hemming said real results have already been seen in Madison.
“I have had people come up to me and say they were in a situation just like they learned about in class and they knew how to better handle it,” Hemming said.
MPD officer Grant Humerickhouse, who taught part of the Tuesday class, said the program is important on the UW campus because many students work at bars and are exposed to safety problems. In addition, trained employees will have the ability to assess and handle problems in ways that coincide with the law, even if bar owners tell them to look the other way.
“We want to provide students with the opportunity to be in this program so they have a way to protect themselves,” Humerickhouse said. “We don’t want to be the bad guys, but we will be when we need to be.”
Representatives from State Street Brats, Madison’s, The Great Dane, The Plaza, Crave and Church Key were also in attendance.
