Patton, Mo., teenagers learn about emergency response

PATTON, Mo. -- Rob Huff, superintendent of Meadow Heights School District and a member of a state homeland security oversight committee, helped train some staff members at the school a year ago in Community Emergency Response Team procedures. When he became aware that a state grant was available to train high school students, it made sense to him to apply for it so that students would know how to pitch in and help in the event of an emergency.

Meadow Heights is the first school in the area to apply for and receive a grant to train its students in emergency preparedness, said Linda Doerge, an emergency preparedness specialist with the Bollinger County Health Center. Woodland is considering it, she said.

Huff said it's important that community members be trained and prepared because Patton is in such a remote area that it would be several days before state rescue workers could reach it.

"We have a cadre of adults, and now young people, trained to respond in any emergency," he said. "The students will be able to assist in the safety of the school, and after they graduate they will be able to assist in the community."

Doerge added, "Teachers can only do so much. They're going to need all the help they can get, especially in a long-term event."

Last week, about 30 students took a two-day training session to learn how to respond in the event of a fire, earthquake, tornado or a flood worse than the one from earlier this year.

Doerge said she was pleased so many students volunteered to be trained. Only those students who could academically afford to miss two days of classwork were allowed to participate.

The grant paid for 25 backpacks filled with items rescuers will need as well as helmets and the instruction material they used in classes led by CERT instructor Paul Breitenstein. They learned basic first aid, fire safety and how to help prepare their families for an emergency.

After the students finish the training and take a test to show that they understand what they have learned, they will be invited to participate in refresher courses and will be sent information updating what they have learned so they can continue to help protect their families and friends should there be a need.

"It's a good example of a lot of different groups working together," Huff said.