Alyssa posted on October 27, 2009
Limp, bloody and broken bodies scattered Benson High School’s lawn. Sirens and screams can be heard for miles. A horrific event has struck Benson. While on the way to school, a bus transporting numerous students and a few teachers was involved in a crash. Luckily, the bus was being followed by two school vans full of JROTC students that have been well trained in advanced first aid.
Students and teachers alike gathered around windows and stared in shock as they watched their peers and pupils being bandaged and placed on gurneys. Fortunately, the event that was being viewed was merely a well planned, well choreographed drill put on by First Sergeant Falcone and his JROTC students.
Every year the Benson JROTC students conduct a major project. This year, said project was formed around the training that the JROTC students have been receiving since school began.
“From August until now, we have done intensive, advanced first aid training,” said Falcone. “We’ve had instructors come in from throughout different parts of the community. We’ve had people from the fire department, Clarkson College, the National Guard and Red Cross who have all joined in to teach the students advanced first aid. We figured what better way to evaluate the students on what they’ve learned than by putting a mock disaster together.”
Friday’s Mock disaster had all of the components of a real one, 911 dispatchers, firefighters, EMTS and incredibly authentic wounded victims. Each person and group had a specific job that they were to perform.
“We prepared the students for the crash,” said National Guard recruiter Nicole Kordiik. “We were putting on the blood and the bruising to simulate real injuries.”
The firefighter’s responsibility was to look after the drill and evaluate how well the students did in responding to the accident and administering help to their fellow students using the intense first aid training that they have been receiving throughout the year.
“I think all of the school kids did really well. They did really well assessing the injuries and addressing wounds,” said EMT supervisor Lisa Connor “I would like to say that they did an outstanding job for what they were able to do. It went really well and I’m glad we were able to be a part of it.”
Firefighters, EMTs and teachers were not the only ones overseeing the mock drill; some teachers also allowed their students to endure the 33 degree temperatures to witness the drill unfold.
“This drill is a pretty good idea,” said freshman Sam Poulson. “If a disaster did happen we should be prepared for it.”
Aside from student and teacher spectators, there were also student and teacher volunteer victims. These were the people that the JROTC students tended to after the “crash.”
“This girl who sits with me at lunch was like ‘hey, do you wanna be a volunteer,’” said senior Michael Fletcher . “I said sure and had no idea what I was getting myself into.”
Although the JROTC kids were operating in freezing temperatures, they seemed to have pulled off many successful or, near successful, rescues.
“I was cold, I was really cold and they got me blankets so they helped me a lot,” said Fletcher. “They dropped the girl who was paralyzed, but I figured she can’t feel it anyways so I won’t mark them down for that.”
The occasional dropping of a severely injured crash victim seemed to be one of very few glitches of the day. And, overall, procedures were followed making for a successful drill.
“I think they did an outstanding job,” said Falcone. “You can tell that the skills that were used out there can not just be done by any other person who has not received that training. I’m pretty confident that they would be able to help in a real life situation.”
Story by: Alyssa Hopper