From wildfires to earthquakes, California faces an abundance of disasters. To prepare Los Altos High School (LAHS) for the unexpected, a group of students from Teen CERT, short for Community Emergency Response Team, is on a mission to ensure that the student body is ready to respond.
“We perceive it is easy to work under stress just because of a few AP classes,” Incident Commander senior Anthony Tam said. “But doing drills like this, when people potentially die, isn’t really a skill you’re exposed to at school.”
The club uses an online curriculum to teach members important emergency response skills including fire safety, disaster psychology and basic first aid, which club members believe is a highly valuable skill.
“If only a few people know about disaster preparedness, you’re screwed,” Anthony said. “We want everyone to make it out.”
“Being educated on this is important,” Publicity Commissioner senior Kevin Lee said. “If you are prepared, you can stay calm and protect yourself and your loved ones.”
Teen CERT isn’t confined to the classroom; its members also gain hands-on experience through practice drills. The exercises replicate real-life disasters, creating a high-pressure environment for participants, with the aim of practicing medical, logistical and incident command skills, such as moving injured personnel to areas of safety and providing medical treatment.
To give its members an opportunity to apply their skills alongside professionals, LAHS Teen CERT works with the Santa Clara County Fire Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Shock Trauma Air Rescue. Santa Clara County Fire trains LAHS Teen CERT medical skills, and the club helps the fire department manage traffic control for events.
“You learn a lot by applying the stuff you learned in theory,” Kevin said. “It felt nice to collaborate with actual first responders.”
The club helps the LAHS Emergency Response team during emergencies on campus, sorting injured people based on their medical needs. As Teen CERT continues to grow, the club’s leaders envision bringing in more members into the club
“If we could just help recruit more people, spread more awareness, I think the community as a whole will be more prepared for a disaster,” Joanne said.
To join or learn more about Teen CERT, visit their meetings every other Thursday in room 714. More information can be found on their Instagram, @sccteencert.
