May 15, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 9A
Students perform mock search and rescue
Eleven youth from
Astoria, Seaside finish
CERT programs
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
Fabricated
moans,
groans and pleas of “help
me” emanated from the
basement of the Seaside
School District facility
on South Franklin Street.
Junior Caitlynn Howe,
playing the role of inci-
dent commander, quick-
ly briefed her team of 10
Astoria and Seaside high
school students, carrying
backpacks of supplies and
wearing bright yellow re-
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lated situation.
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ments, the students, who
are part of the Communi-
ty Emergency Response
Team programs at both high
schools, dispersed through-
out the building to look for
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played by students in Seaside
High School teacher Vanessa
Unger’s drama class.
The simulation, held May
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the students, four from Asto-
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dent was an earthquake had
taken place, but no tsunami
followed. A majority of the
community made it to the
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and were accounted for, but
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members had to go back
to the building to conduct
search and rescue for the
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— who had been realisti-
cally decked out in make-
up by Seaside junior Holly
Phipps — shared informa-
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of time so the student CERT
members could assess their
injuries and identify them
as immediate, delayed or
minor/walking wounded.
The injuries ranged from
minor scrapes and bruises
to a stick through the leg
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tim was uninjured, but she
played the role of a woman
who was hysterical and up-
set for her friend, who had
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Unger had instructed her
drama students prior to the
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not only because they were
being graded based on their
performance, but also to
help out the student CERT
members.
“They need to get as
close to the real situation as
possible,” Unger said.
The CERT members
also were tasked with com-
municating with Howe
and one another, treating
KATHERINE LACAZE PHOTO
PHOTO BY HOLLY PHIPPS
Members of the Community Emergency Response Team programs at Seaside and Astoria
high school carefully prepare a victim to be transported during their final exercise to become
certified in basic CERT training. The victims were played by students from Seaside High
School’s drama department.
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transporting them safely
to the triage area. Howe
was selected as incident
commander because she
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the leadership capabilities
of different students posing
as incident commanders.
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ercise, said Jeremy Gold-
smith, Seaside’s RARE
AmeriCorps intern, is that
“we want to see (the stu-
dents) physically do what
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of taking a written test, and
it was the most important.
“Once they do this, they
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CERT training,” Goldsmith
said.
He and Nick Sund, a
5$5($PHUL&RUSV YROXQ-
teer and an emergency ser-
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sop County, led three pilot
CERT programs at Astoria,
Seaside and Warrenton
high schools. At Warren-
ton, they held the class
twice per week for nine
weeks, so the students had
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toria and Seaside, the class
was once per week until the
last month, when they went
to two classes per week to
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Sund and Goldsmith,
who were trained as in-
structors through the Fed-
eral Emergency Manage-
ment Agency, offered the
training this semester as a
sort of “pilot program” at
the three county schools.
Their hope is the schools
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continue to offer them in
each location.
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perience leading the pro-
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bly rewarding.”
Todd Newton, from the
Warrenton CERT, and Gale
Scobie, from the Astoria
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monitor and shadow the
students while they per-
formed their assignments.
The group selected a
safety word, “banana,” for
when something in real life
had gone wrong and the
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were rescued and treated,
the group de-briefed and
talked about what aspects
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Most of the players, in-
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tims, said the simulation
illustrated ways communi-
cation could be better in the
future.
That was an area that
was lacking during the sim-
ulation, Howe agreed, from
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The hardest thing about the
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“was getting people to get
back to me.” She recog-
nized, though, that taking
emergency response from
an abstract topic in the
classroom to a real-world
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lenges for the students. The
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two-dimensional tabletop
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three-dimensional space,
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look out for problems and
challenges below, beside
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practice,” Howe said.
Scobie agreed com-
munication often is a per-
sistent problem among
response teams and nearly
impossible to perfect.
“That’s usually the big-
gest issue,” he said. “You
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you’d like to see it.”
Seaside freshman Elijua
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part of the program be-
cause it was more life-like
and they were able to apply
what they learned in the
classroom. He also enjoyed
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during class and felt like
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doing those to participat-
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said, he liked the program
because “it’s fun to do, and
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react during an emergency
scenario.
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help with the relief pro-
cess and not just be the one
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Howe doesn’t intend for
her training to stop now.
She and fellow Seaside ju-
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ning to take a Train the
Trainer course to become
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and then start a community
CERT program in Seaside
Members of the Community Emergency Response Team pro-
grams at Astoria and Seaside high schools perform a simula-
tion during their final May 1. In order to become certified, the
11 students from both schools participated in a mock search
and rescue exercise at the Seaside School District building.
Drama students from Seaside High School played the roles of
the victims.
PHOTO BY HOLLY PHIPPS
Seaside High School students Will Kautz, from left, Connor
Adam and Caitlynn Howe communicate during a stimulation
performed as part of their final for the Community Emergency
Response Team training program. Seven Seaside students and
four students who did an identical program at Astoria High
School this semester joined as one team for the final simulation.
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Project.
“We just think it’s some-
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They are in the planning
process and also are fund-
raising to purchase back-
packs with supplies for
team members. For more
information, call Seaside
High School at (503) 738-
WR VSHDN ZLWK $YLOD
RU +RZH RU HPDLO $YLOD
DWVLOYLD\HVHQLD#RXWORRN
com.
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