Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Studying in the shadow of 9/11: a new domestic preparedness and security program is the first in the nation for high school students.

Studying in the shadow of 9/11: a new domestic preparedness and security program is the first in the nation for high school students. The shadow of the Twin Towers will never again stretch across thestreets of lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York. Lower Manhattan is generally defined as the area delineated on the north by Chambers Street, on the west by the Hudson River (North , but the shadow of September 11 continues toloom large both in New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and around the globe. In many ways, theevents of that day are directly responsible for the latest technicalprogram offering at two high schools in Missouri's St. LouisCounty St. Louis County is the name of multiple counties in the United States: St. Louis County, Missouri St. Louis County, Minnesota . North Technical High School is located in Florissant in North St.Louis County, while South Technical High School in Sunset Hills is inSouth St. Louis County. Programs at the two schools are open to all 10ththrough 12th grade students from the 23 public school districts in thecounty. Approximately 2,000 students are enrolled and taking advantageof the career and technical programs offered by the two schools. These programs include traditional technical courses such asprecision machining, construction, network administration and healthsciences. However, in the fall of 2006, an exciting new opportunityopened up for the county's students when both of the technicalschools in the Special School District of St. Louis County beganoffering a domestic preparedness and security program for high schoolseniors. Students in the program learn emergency dispatching procedures anddevelopment of disaster plans using emergency response. The program isalso intended to help them develop an understanding of terroristthreats, prevention and deterrence activities; incident command and lawenforcement response actions; target identification; and signs ofchemical, biological, nuclear, radioactive and explosive hazards. A Generation Reclaims its Future "Although it's hard to imagine, the students enrolled indomestic preparedness and security were just starting middle school whenthe World Trade Center fell," says Esther Angelos, theprogram's instructor at North Tech. "Like all of us, theevents of that day had a profound effect on these kids. They feltscared, angry and helpless. And many of them decided that they wanted topursue careers that would ensure that day would never be repeated." Students enrolled in the program have a wide range of career goals.While the program prepares them for entry-level positions such asdispatcher Software that determines what pending tasks should be done next and assigns the available resources to accomplish it. It may execute other programs or generate a list for human operators to follow. See scheduler. , first responder first responderFirst response personnel Emergency medicine A person employed in the public sector–EMT, fire fighter, police, volunteer EMS–whose duties include provision of immediate medical care in the event of an emergency; FRs have basic emergency or private security officer, some plan to gointo careers that will require additional education, such as policeofficer or FBI agent. Jobs as lawyers or in forensics See computer forensics. are also amongthose that students are considering that will require postsecondaryeducation. Other options might include detective, Secret Service agentor jobs in corporate security. Many of the students in the domestic preparedness program wereenrolled in the junior year law enforcement program offered at bothschools. One such student, Jeff Streib at South Tech, has planned to bea police officer since he was a small child. Like everyone, Streib was"shocked and really upset" by the events of September 11, buthis dedication to pursuing a career in law enforcement never wavered.When Jeff learned that domestic preparedness would be offered, he knewthat it would help him build the skills and knowledge that policeofficers in the post-9/ll world would need. "It's been really thorough so far," says Streib."I'm enjoying the program and learning a lot." The program's curriculum covers such topics as weapons of massdestruction Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, but exclude the means of transporting or , domestic and international terrorism Noun 1. international terrorism - terrorism practiced in a foreign country by terrorists who are not native to that countryact of terrorism, terrorism, terrorist act - the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain , the Patriot Act Patriot Act:see USA PATRIOT Act. , theHomeland Security Act The Homeland Security Act (HSA) of 2002, Pub. L. No. 107-296, 116 Stat. 2135 (Nov. 25, 2002), introduced in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, created the Department of Homeland Security in the largest government reorganization in 50 years, since the Department of , preparedness for natural disasters, and emergencyresponses. Students also will have the opportunity to earn severalcertifications in this program, including National EmergencyTelecommunicator, Department of Homeland Security Noun 1. Department of Homeland Security - the federal department that administers all matters relating to homeland securityHomeland Securityexecutive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States Weapons of MassDestruction for Law Enforcement, and various certifications from theFederal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the federal agency responsible for coordinating emergency planning, preparedness, risk reduction, response, and recovery. The agency works closely with state and local governments by funding emergency programs and providing technical (FEMA FEMA,n.pr See Federal Emergency Management Agency. ). Instructors and First Responders The program is the first of its kind to be offered to high schoolstudents in the United States. The program's instructors traveledto Anniston, Alabama, where they completed an intensive weapons of massdestruction training course at the Center for Domestic Preparedness,which is operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security'sOffice of Grants and Training. It is the only federally charteredweapons of mass destruction training facility in the country. Emergencyresponders from disciplines ranging from emergency management and healthcare to law enforcement and public works were specially selected toparticipate in the training. Also participating in the training in Anniston were instructorsfrom the EMT/firefighting program at both North Tech and South Tech. "Domestic preparedness is, of course, not limited to the lawenforcement field," says Skip Parmley, instructor forEMT/firefighting at North Tech. "We all remember well the bravefirefighters, EMTs and paramedics who played such a key role onSeptember 11. So students in my program will be involved in trainingrelated to weapons of mass destruction as well." In fact, students in the domestic preparedness and program will doconsiderable cross-training with students in the EMT/firefightingprogram. "One of the lessons learned from September 11 was that thevarious groups involved in preparing for and responding to disastersneed to be more adept at working and communicating with oneanother," Parmley says. "We're trying to establish thosehabits early." What They Are Learning The students in the domestic preparedness and security program atNorth Technical and South Technical High Schools are being introduced toskills and subjects that include the following: * community-based corrections; * physical fitness; * basic computer skills; * emergency telecommunicator training; * private security; * domestic and international terrorism; * legislative acts Statutes passed by lawmakers, as opposed to court-made laws. in the war on terrorism Terrorist acts and the threat of Terrorism have occupied the various law enforcement agencies in the U.S. government for many years. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, as amended by the usa patriot act; * weapons of mass destruction; and * homeland security. Jeff Konkel is director of publications for the Special SchoolDistrict of St. Louis County. He can be contacted atikonkel@ssd.k12.mo.us.

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