If disaster strikes, there’s a new group on the island ready to lend a hand.
On Sunday, 27 upperclassmen from St. Croix Seventh Day Adventist School in Christiansted became the first graduates of the Virgin Islands Teen Community Emergency Response Team.
The Teen CERT pilot program was co-sponsored by Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency in partnership with the St. Croix Rescue Academy pilot program. The program educates and trains student-volunteers in preparing for disasters that might impact the territory.
Teen CERT requires that the student-volunteers participate in a 20-hour training program to become certified.
The group spent about five hours a day for four days learning disaster preparedness skills such as fire safety, light search and rescue, disaster medical operations and team organization. Certified CERT trainers with the St. Croix Rescue Academy, the organization that trains adults in the VITEMA’s VI CERT program, were instructors.
The program began with an overview of disaster preparedness that included discussing events that could impact the territory, such as flooding, storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as reviewing recent disasters in Japan, Haiti and Chile. The sessions ended with instruction on fire suppression and radio communications.
Before their Sunday graduation, the students did a hands-on emergency disaster scenario from start to finish at St. Croix Rescue Academy in Five Corners.
Three young response teams took part in a simulated full-scale earthquake disaster drill. In the scenario, the hospital was down to one floor and the police department and all communications were gone, and people were trapped in a burning building. The students did extrications, put out fires, transported victims and handled a medical triage.
“I suggest everybody do this training to learn to save lives,” 10th-grader Kemetris Thomas said. “This may save a life. I learned a lot that I can use in everyday life to help family and others.”
Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, Teen CERT members can assist others in their schools, neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. Teen CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.
“What developers of the CERT program have found is that teens not only have the ability but also the desire to help others in disasters,” said VITEMA Director Elton Lewis in a release. “This program gives them the proper skills to do it."
Noel Smith, deputy director of VITEMA, spoke at the ceremony attended by family members and instructors. He said the emphasis on decision-making processes was a valuable life skill the class will take with them.
VI Teen CERT certification is also available to faith-based communities, youth organizations and members of clubs and civic organizations. The Virgin Islands, through this pilot program, joins several jurisdictions across the U.S. that are developing Teen CERTs.
Searl Gordon, guidance counselor at Seventh Day Adventist School, said the training goes along with the school philosophy to teach the students to be caring and concerned about things bigger than themselves.
“In a disaster they will be ready and able to assist the larger community and not hesitate at all,” Gordon said.
Those interested can contact VITEMA’s Deputy Director for Preparedness, Al Javois, at 773-2244 ext. 222, for further information.