Students from all four Lincoln County School District high schools recently participated in a Teen CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) skills certification, putting their emergency preparedness training into action.
Teen CERT is a training program that educates high school students about disasters that may impact the area in which they live. In this semester class, 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.
During the certification event, students rotated through a series of hands-on testing stations designed to practice and assess the real-world emergency response skills they have been developing throughout the program. Working in pairs, students demonstrated competencies such as performing CPR, safely removing contaminated gloves, properly shutting off natural gas, putting out small fires, and providing basic first aid and disaster medical care to those who are injured, among other skills.
“Students were challenged, encouraged, and empowered in their emerging disaster response skills,” said LCSD Safety Coordinator Sue Graves. “They grew in confidence over the course of the day-long event as they progressed in their skills from “proficient” to “mastery” grades.”
Over three dozen volunteers and staff from a variety of local, state and Federal emergency response organizations came together to run the event and evaluate students as they demonstrated their new skills. “It takes a lot of skilled and dedicated people to pull off a big event like this,” said Graves. “We are grateful to have so many great partners who are eager and willing to give a full day to support and invest in our Teen CERT students at this event.” We were also honored to host staff from Woodburn Fire Department and Woodburn School District as observers who are working to develop a similar Teen CERT program in their schools.