Class acts: ‘SERT’-ified teens can help with emergency response
Published: July 1, 2010
Emergency response may not exactly be kid stuff, but in Napa County even sixth-graders are learning to take action when the unexpected happens.
The Napa County Office of Education prepares high school, middle school and responsible sixth-grade students to respond in emergencies such as fires, floods, earthquakes and other disasters. The Teen School Emergency Response Teams complement the work of adult Community Emergency Response Teams and expand the community’s response by teaching students to care for themselves and those around them in an emergency.
Napa’s Teen SERT program began in 2005 under a federal Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Grant. The county office won a CSBA Golden Bell for the program in 2009.
The 18-hour training program goes way beyond the “duck and cover” civil defense drills of the 1950s. Teen SERT prepares students to use a fire extinguisher, administer basic emergency first aid, and triage a situation so they can report to emergency personnel, explains NCOE Director Terry Longoria.
Major flooding has hit the Napa area several times, putting residents in life-threatening peril and leading to emergency evacuations and rescues. Given that history, Longoria recalls that some children have exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress during hard rains. Teen SERT graduates can help—they’re trained to recognize signs of emotional distress and respond appropriately.
“They can keep their classmates comfortable and calm during a disaster, and that’s half the battle,” says Longoria.
Skills mastered in the program can even extend to students’ classroom studies. One tactic, called cribbing—using sticks or boards to stabilize and lift an object to free a victim trapped by fallen objects or rubble—yields insights into geometry and the physics of leverage.
During SERT graduation exercises, principals and administrators may act as disaster victims, and students demonstrate what they’ve learned by administering first aid and getting the victims to safety. Afterward, the students keep their helmets and vests to identify them in an emergency as trained personnel.
When the Calistoga Unified School District held disaster drills, Teen SERT graduates went in and made suggestions to help them get organized, Longoria says, adding, “The teachers said they were so glad we did this with the students,” because rather than needing direction, the youths were able to assist with the emergency response.
The students also apply their skills to daily emergencies.
One program graduate named Faith was prepared to take swift action when her little brother started choking on a small toy. “Because of the training I received in Teen SERT, I picked him up, flipped him over my knee, and performed the Heimlich maneuver,” she says. “The toy popped right out. Because of Teen SERT, I saved my brother’s life.”
Making connections with other community organizations is critical, Longoria says. The students work alongside the community CERT teams, and the fire chief chairs the School Emergency Response Team meetings.
School board members can help by making sure each school has emergency response teams in place and that they’re performing practice drills, Longoria says. Establishing clear lines of communication and making sure everyone knows their role is also critical.
During an emergency, she says, board members need to stay informed without getting in the way of the superintendent and others who will be communicating with response personnel.
“Plan in advance of a disaster,” she advises, “so if a disaster happens, they’re not trying to figure out what their roles are.”
—Kristi Garrett
WHO Napa County Office of Education
WHAT School Emergency Response Team Program
WHEN Since 2005
WHERE Napa County
WHY Trained teens can assist in a disaster
HOW SERT helps prepare teens to take care of themselves and assist others in an emergency
MORE Napa County Office of Education
U.S. Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center