Mt. Diablo High School Students Complete Community Emergency Response Team Training

If a disaster such as an earthquake, fire or flooding impacts the city of Concord, 17 Mt. Diablo HS students will be ready to help.

The students, who are part of the school’s Medical and Biotechnology Academy (MBTA), recently volunteered for FEMA Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training in partnership with the city and Office of Emergency Services.

They spent 25 hours – one hour each morning at 7 a.m. weekdays for five weeks – learning how to assist with triage and medical operations, light search and rescue, fire science, terrorism, and general emergency and disaster preparedness.

The training culminated with a hands-on drill Feb. 11 at the school that required students to use a radio to communicate with emergency responders, douse flames using a fire extinguisher, and practice treating and rescuing injured people (simulated by other students).

Concord Police Chief Mark Bustillos and MDUSD Superintendent Dr. Adam Clark presented certificates of CERT completion to the students along with their instructors during a Mt. Diablo Business Education Alliance meeting.

Chief Bustillos commended the students for taking on the responsibility of public service, saying they will be ready to assist in emergencies such as the collapse of a building or even a worst-case scenario such as the recent major earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, where “they don’t have enough emergency responders.” Chief Bustillos said he hoped the training would spark students’ interest in emergency services or healthcare careers in this community. He noted that 75% of the students are bilingual in two to three languages.

“In this community, that’s huge,” he said, adding that in densely populated housing, residents speak multiple languages and the students’ ability to translate while interacting with first responders would help tremendously.