Cody Luk
Online Editor
The University of La Verne safety committee is bringing free community emergency response team training classes to ULV students and employees, city of La Verne employees and La Verne residents starting in April 2016.
The Los Angeles City Fire Department developed CERT in 1985, and the program is now implemented nationwide. Its purpose is to prepare people for emergencies and disasters, such as a high magnitude earthquake.
The ULV CERT program consists of 24-hour Federal Emergency Management Agency approved training. Participants will attend eight classes, and topics include disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue operations, disaster psychology and organization and terrorism. The final class is a course review and disaster simulation.
While not all CERT classes are free, the Los Angeles County Fire Department is funding the one at the University with a grant the department received.
“The mission of the University of La Verne safe committee is to develop and promote a healthy and safe environment for students, employees and visitors on our campuses,” said Justin Czerniak, project management specialist in the office of information technology and chairman for the CERT subcommittee of the safety committee. “To assist in carrying out its primary mission, the committee is developing a CERT that will be hosted here at the University to support the Emergency Operations Plan as a trained support unit.”
Multiple agencies, including the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the La Verne Fire Department, will be teaching the course at the University. CERT members from neighboring communities and other experts in emergency preparedness will also be collaborating to present the classes.
La Verne currently does not have a CERT program nor a team.
“The University will be assuming the CERT program initially and may eventually combine with the city to work together to develop a comprehensive CERT program that will serve the community while also address the safety of the campus community,” said Alex Soto, director of risk management who completed a CERT class at Pomona College in April.
“The ultimate goal is to train individuals within the campus community, whether it be staff, faculty and students, to be adequately able to assist each other in the event of a natural or manmade disaster.”
In the event of a disaster, there is a high chance for people to be on their own for up to 96 hours.
“To prepare for the event, we have taken it upon ourselves to properly train the individuals and the community to prepare for the first 96 hours until we get outside aid that can start assisting us,” Soto said. “This is particularly for the students that live on the campus. The goal is for each of us to empower ourselves to be prepared for emergencies.”
Emergency preparedness is especially important for international and out of state students without experiences on what to do during an earthquake.
The CERT program also provides training for when a person is in emergency situations outside their homes, such as in a vehicle.
“Individuals will have to rely on each other for help in order to meet their immediate lifesaving and life sustaining needs,” Czerniak said.
“CERT training addresses personal responsibility for emergency preparedness and trains volunteers to deliver lifesaving skills with an emphasis on decision-making and rescuer safety that will serve themselves and their communities for many years to come.”
Soto thought the most important factor of the CERT class he took was the two-hour disaster simulation, where he had to perform various emergency actions during a mock 9.0 magnitude earthquake. The simulation requires implementing all the skill sets learned through the classes.
“We had to go through an exercise by developing teams that would assess the integrity of the building and perform a search and rescue of injured individuals and triage and treat those individuals and transport them to hospitals,” Soto said.
“It was about as real as you can get minus an actual disaster. You got to experience the whole class coming together at the end.”
The people in the stimulation had the visual effects of injuries through the use of makeup.
After completing the program, students would receive a “go bag,” a backpack with emergency necessities, such as a vest, a helmet, protective eye gear, ear plugs and more.
Neil Gerard, CERT class instructor at Pomona College and Upland CERT chairperson, taught Soto’s class in April.
He will also be assisting with the University’s new CERT class.
“For university students, I think it’s a great way to be prepared,” Gerard said. “These are life skills.”
He feels the most important aspect from the CERT class is learning how to deal with organizing volunteers in the event of a disaster.
Gerard also believes CERT will be helpful to students as prospects for employment.
“They will be able to learn these early on and take them on the jobs,” Gerard said. “Being CERT trained will make them more employable.”
There will currently be only one CERT class on campus, but there are hopes to add more in the future since there is a high demand.
For the University class, there are 25 openings for ULV students and employees and 15 openings for community members, per Los Angeles County Fire Department regulations. The first class is on April 7, 2016.
“All of (the lessons) put together provided me with a skill set that allowed me to be confident to address an emergency and in trying to stabilize the situation,” Soto said.
“I think the main goal is to let students know the University of La Verne has taken a deep interest to keeping the campus as safe as possible, and we wish to continue to address safety issues by offering this class to the campus community.”
For more information on the new CERT class, contact Justin Czerniak at 909-448-4635 or jczerniak@laverne.edu.
Cody Luk can be reached at cody.luk@laverne.edu.
Correction: November 20, 2015
In an earlier version of this story, the creation of the CERT program was incorrectly attributed to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It was actually created by the Los Angeles City Fire Department. The Campus Times regrets the error.
The Los Angeles CITY Fire Department Created the CERT program.