By Kiera Morgan

Two schools in the Lincoln County School District, Taft High School and Waldport High School, have established Teen CERT programs. The School District’s Teen CERT programs were featured in FEMA’s National CERT E-Brief Newsletter this month. Highlighted in the article was information on the school district partnering with the local police and fire departments and county commissioners to supply six disaster caches placed throughout the district. The cache at Taft High School contains enough water, shelter, medical, and sanitization supplies to support 1,300 people for several weeks. Taft High School is also a designated tsunami evacuation site, and has trained Teen CERT responders on site to assist in the event of an earthquake and tsunami. Sue Graves, coordinator for the Lincoln County Teen CERT and LCSD safety coordinator said the classes have been very beneficial for the students and the community.

During the school year, CERT instructors partner with professional responders and other community members to help provide training for the semester-long program. At Taft High School, second year Teen CERT students help provide training for leaderships labs, which are intended to help students enhance their ability to lead, follow and work as a team. In 2014, Taft High School incorporated a final simulation for Teen CERT, which featured an earthquake drill and evacuation, into its building safety procedures.