Teachers representing the four high schools in Lincoln County School District had Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training this month so they can teach students in Teen CERT.
Teen CERT is a training program that educates high school students about disasters that may impact the area in which they live. Students learn hands-on disaster response skills that empower them to become a part of the school’s emergency response efforts and rescue their fellow students when professional responders are not readily available due to the magnitude of the disaster situation.
The Teen CERT is an elective, stand-alone semester credit class at Taft 7-12, Toledo, Newport and Waldport High Schools. The District has offered Teen CERT for 12 years but this year, students who take and pass the course will also receive certification in CPR, AED and First Aid.
Sue Graves, LCSD Safety Coordinator, said that up until now, the District has always followed FEMA’s comprehensive adult CERT curriculum for the Teen CERT class. “Over the years however, we found that some of those components are more geared toward the larger community response rather than a school response to a disaster” explained Graves. “As a result, this year we revamped the curriculum to focus on the specific actions our teens would actually take during a disaster at school to help rescue students and staff. That made the course more relevant for our students and also opened up time in the course to offer a certification in CPR, AED and First Aid.”
Teen CERT’s main priority is safety: safety of the student responders, the safety of the people being rescued, and the safety of the environment. Teen CERT uses the buddy system and students always wear personal protective equipment while performing rescues. Students are taught to think ‘safety’ in everything they do.
In our District, Teen CERT is taught by a licensed school teacher also trained in CERT. The new CPR, AED and First Aid portions of the course will be taught by the District nurse team. Several guest speakers from the community who are experts in the various CERT subjects will present and introduce students to a variety of interesting career paths.
Graves said students in Teen CERT not only gain an understanding of disasters and the skills to safely perform rescues, they also learn the value of following an organized and systematic approach to managing emergency response efforts. “Equally important is their newfound personal growth in essential life skills,” Graves said. “Teen CERT students grow in confidence, self-awareness, and in their ability to follow, lead, and be strong teammates. They take these newfound attributes into their future, making them more successful in all areas of life, home, and career.”
The LCSD Teen CERT program has received national recognition and has become a resource for many schools and communities developing Teen CERT programs of their own.
