In Astoria, Warrenton and Seaside, teens are being trained as Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) members, ready to help staff at their high schools respond when disaster strikes.
Behind the effort is Clatsop County Emergency Manager Tiffany Brown, who more than three years ago learned about a robust teen CERT program run by Sue Graves, the safety coordinator with the Lincoln County School District.
“I thought ‘Wow; that’s amazing. But how do you go from nothing to that,’” said Brown of Lincoln County high schools, where students can take CERT training as a credit course and are fully integrated into the county’s emergency response plans.
CERT, a national program sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills to aid first responders. There are adult CERT teams in Cannon Beach, Seaside, Warrenton, Gearhart, Astoria, Lewis and Clark and Jewell, each sponsored by a fire or police department.
Brown was encouraged by Jeremy Goldsmith, an intern with the city of Seaside through the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) AmeriCorps program administered through the University of Oregon, to apply for a RARE intern for her teen CERT effort. Nick Sund, a RARE volunteer stationed in Brown’s office, started as emergency services coordinator in October.
Teaching CERT
Goldsmith and Sund took training to becoming certified CERT instructors. They recently started taking groups of eight to 12 students at Astoria, Warrenton and Seaside high schools through lessons in extinguishing small fires, light search and rescue, assisting injured people, triage, helping emergency responders, identifying hazards, reducing fire hazards and helping reduce survivor stress.
On Thursday, Sund and Goldsmith taught students at WHS how to extricate people pinned under heavy objects using leverage, carrying techniques and how to build stretchers for victims using classroom supplies and furniture.
“First responders, they get there after a little bit, but we’re just normal people who happen to be there at the time it happens,” said sophomore Nathan Ruscheinsky. “We’re just trying to help as much as we can until they get there.”
First comes gathering information about the dangers in your surroundings, said WHS junior Sabrina Whitaker, mentioning the beams over her head in the aging cafeteria she’s been told could likely fall down in a major earthquake.
While the training teaches her self-reliance and how to help others, said Whitaker, it will also help as she studies at Clatsop Community College to become a nurse. And that sort of pragmatism wasn’t exclusive to her.
Half of Astoria’s CERT trainees are also firefighter trainees with the Lewis and Clark Rural Fire Protection District. On Tuesday, they learned from Astoria firefighters how to properly handle a fire extinguisher and put out flames using P.A.S.S. technique (pull the pin; aim at the base of the fire; squeeze; and spray).
“It gives helpful background,” said senior Brandon Hall of the training, which included the demonstration and a lecture on different types of fires. And it helps his resume, added Hall, as he tries to become a firefighter after high school.
Next steps
Sund and Goldsmith hope to have nearly 30 teen CERT members between Astoria, Warrenton and Seaside certified by the end of May, training Knappa team CERT members in the spring. They’ll send each group through a final exam and a disaster simulation before a ceremony to receive their CERT training certificates.
“They’re a great resource for their high school,” said Sund, adding that in Lincoln County, teen CERT members are fully integrated into the school district’s emergency plan. “It would be great to see schools plan for their use in an emergency.”
WHS Principal Rod Heyen agreed. But whether it’s CERT training or any other program, he said, it comes down to staffing. Other schools, he added, weave the CERT training into the curriculum of an existing teacher also certified to train.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have anybody on my 15-man team here at the high school who can pull it off,” said Heyen.
AHS Principal Lynn Jackson said he could see CERT training integrated into a science course, adding that for now, schools are just seeing how the training goes.
At this point, said Brown, the goal is to show local high schools the value in CERT training. In Dallas (Ore.) School District, she said, teen CERT teams are tasked with restocking first aid kits; and in Polk County, they work alongside their adult counterparts.
“It could look a lot of different ways,” she said. “At the end of the day, they’ll have 10 to 15 more people who can help when a crisis strikes.”
Originally Published in The Daily Astorian
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