Elena Christian students prepare for disasters

ST. CROIX - About 40 students at Elena Christian Junior High spent most of last week outside the conventional classroom - trading in their schoolbooks and teachers for a how-to disaster management binder and emergency response instructors.

Instead of studying for quizzes, they responded to search-and-rescue drills and mock school emergencies, officials said at the opening of the V.I. Teen CERT training program.

The students still had plenty of work to do, said Elena Christian Principal Carlos McGregor, as he pulled out a thick binder Wednesday with all the materials to be covered in the coming days. The size of the binder brought gasps from students and laughter from the dozens of parents seated behind the group in Elena Christian's auditorium.

The students at Elena Christian are the first V.I. public school students to benefit from the Teen CERT - or Community Emergency Response Team - training, said V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Christine Lett.

VITEMA is funding the training through federal grants and plans to take the program to public and private schools throughout the territory, VITEMA Director Elton Lewis said.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure we continue this program and expand this program to other schools - both public and private," he said. "If we are impacted, we need to be self-sufficient."

The CERT program, which has been offered to adults for a decade, helps ensure the territory is prepared in the event of a disaster, Lewis said.

St. Croix Rescue Chief Gregory Richards, who is coordinating the course, said that after completing the program the students will be able to assist in the event of an emergency in the school or in their community.

"The idea of the Teen CERT is to have the school build capacity - not just for disasters, but also for emergencies within the school," Richards said. "The first few minutes are critical and generally determine the outcome of the situation for victims."

As part of the weeklong training, the students will learn about fire science, anatomy of the body, incident management, triage, disaster psychology, terrorism prevention and disaster first aid, Richards said.

"We will teach them how to use household items to treat and minimize wounds," Richards said, "and all of the injuries you might see in the aftermath of a disaster."

The students responded to two mock emergencies - one at Elena Christian and a larger drill held Sunday, Richards said.

Part of the reason Elena Christian was chosen as the first public school to receive the funding was because of its low-lying location near the coast, makes it a vulnerable site in the event of a tsunami, Richards said.

That scenario came up in April when emergency response teams from all 17 public schools in the St. Croix district met along with representatives from the V.I. National Guard and VITEMA to discuss school-specific emergency response plans. Those plans were supposed to be in to the St. Croix School Superintendent's office by Monday, and most have complied, said Deputy St. Croix School Superintendent Janine Schuster.

"There is a district emergency plan, and we want to make sure all of the schools are on the same page," Schuster said, so that, even when students move between schools, when a specific alarm is sounded, "they know exactly how to respond."

The district is in the process of reviewing those site-specific plans and expects to respond with its own recommendations and requirements in the coming weeks, Schuster said.

Last year, Richards worked with VITEMA to bring the Teen CERT program to St. Croix Seventh-day Adventist School - the pilot program. Next on the list is Charlotte Amalie High School, said Irvin Mason, a program manager with VITEMA.

VITEMA receives about $35,000 annually from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to conduct the programming, he said. A program similar to the one at Elena Christian - which includes instructional materials, equipment and payment for instructors - costs about $15,000, Mason said.

- Contact Daniel Shea at 714-9127 or email dshea@dailynews.vi.

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