Disaster Training for Local Students

What began as a two-week program in health class has now become a semester long preparedness program for GHS students. Teen school emergency rescue training (TeenSERT) is a semester long class that trains and certifies students in different disaster and rescue techniques.

TeenSERT arrived in schools in the wake of 9/11 as a means of preparing students for emergencies. The federal government adopted House Bill 1544, which states that TeenSERT is for: "...training and exercises to assist public elementary and secondary schools in developing and implementing programs to instruct students regarding age-appropriate skills to prevent, prepare for, respond to, mitigate against, or recover from an act of terrorism;" (House Bill 1544). This means that participating schools must properly trained students within the classrooms to handle said emergencies.

The program is taught by Peggy Densmore-Henderson and with the help of Mary Ann Sussman, the students learn everything from simple first aid to crisis management in disaster situations.

Teen SERT is not only a result of the tragedies of 9/11 and the shooting at Columbine High School, but it is an offshoot of the Community Emergency Response Team. As the federal government states, "The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is designed to target the general population and is most often implemented by community-oriented groups. Research has shown, however, that individuals in the pre-teen and young adult age groups are more receptive to basic citizenship-building initiatives. Creation of an ongoing Teen School Emergency Response Training (SERT) curriculum-based program offers opportunities to extend the education by mentoring others through the school's clubs and organizations, as well as offering opportunities to include the parents and relatives of the Teen SERT students," (TeenSERT model)

Students go through rigorous training, with the help of volunteers like Kathy Dilly, who certifies the class in CPR and AED. Recently, the students were put to the test and trained in a mock tornado disaster rescue at the school's agricultural barn.

Each disaster will have the group broken down into different groups, including a school commander, a public information officer, a safety officer, a liaison officer, operations group, logistics group, planning and administrative. Each group or individual will have a specific purpose during the disaster, such as the public information officer. The public information officer is there to head off media and distraught individuals who are trying to gain access to a secure location.

Thanks to the GHS art department, victims were given a very realistic look. Students were given lacerations, second degree burns and impalements from foreign objects. With just under 20 victims in various states of injury (from minor wounds to chemical burns and even dead), the Teen SERT were driven to the sight without any foresight as to what they would encounter. This element of surprise helps prepare the student for real-life emergencies.

Students were faced with dousing a (controlled) fire, setting up triage, securing the disaster site, handling distraught parents and dealing with the media. Essentially, everything they were taught in class was put to practical use in this mock disaster.

The class is offered every semester and has a mock disaster test each time.

Works Cited

http://www.govtrack.us/data/us/bills.text/109/h1544.pdf Page 38, lines 8-13

http://www.cert-la.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/TeenSERT-Model.pdf