First responders and a bay flight chopper rushed to Pinellas Park high school Wednesday morning.But don’t worry; it was just another day of class.
It was ‘Disaster day’, where students were training for a worst case scenario.
In this mock drill, it was a simulated domestic terrorist attack.
The scene was pretty bad.
In this mock drill, domestic terrorists have attacked high school students.
An oil truck had slammed into these school buses, leaving students badly burned and injured.
The school is on the one in the state with a First Responder program, where the students train for four years to learn how to become firefighters and paramedics.
So in this drill, they’re put to the test. The seniors are the first responders, and they have to come rescue the victims.
Pinellas Park HS Senior Gisselle Rodriguez said, “That’s where our training comes to play because we have to get them out correctly, triage them and then take them onto the ambulance.”
While there are lots of mock drills in Tampa Bay, this is unique because high schoolers are trained to do everything- they’re the paramedics and firefighters responding to the scene.
Rodriguez said, “Especially for us going into the medical field, it’s really an eye opener because we get to see what can really happen.”
Real first responders were on scene to watch them work, and they were pleased with what they saw.
Paramedic Chris Lewis said, “[These students are] very good. Very good. I’ve been listening to their commands on the radio, seeing how they’re treating the patients.”
It’s a real life test to prepare our future medical professionals.
This course work and disaster drill can also help the students to become certified as actual first responders.
Over the past few years, some students have actual gone on to study to become paramedics and firefighters in the real world.
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