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“ACADEMIC” CERT Tom Weaver, M.Ed. – CERT Program Coordinator Florida Division of Emergency Management CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) Programs over the years have branched out from the traditional “neighborhood” oriented team to a variety of team orientations. Newer orientations include “Academic” CERT units, teams that are based in school systems. Florida has several approaches to ‘Academic” CERT units. A traditional school CERT Team develops a CERT Unit preparing students for emergency situations. North Port Fl. High School has trained 120 high school students in CERT, as part of the school’s “Leadership Academy”. Under the direction of Michael Jennings, first aid and safety teacher, with the assistance of North Port Interim Fire Chief Howard Bearse and Firemedic Keith Tommas, the students complete the Basic CERT Training Curriculum including basic fire suppression, elementary search and rescue, basic medical and triage plus the other usual components. The group also adds CPR and AED training, following completion of the Basic CERT training. Many of the students are interested in public service careers – firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic, police officer, or social services.
	Some students remember vividly, the “season of wildfires”, when fires burned thousands of acres near their homes. The high school students not only learn how to find there way through a smoke-filled classroom but also actually practice extinguishing a controlled fire on school grounds. Student comments include “This class is really hands-on” and “This class is cool” indicating strong interest by the students. Another student commented “We learned how to help evacuate people and how to give first aid for someone who is in disaster”.
Program Director Jennings commented “ We have a good partnership with the city, where we would work under the fire department’s direction if they need help in a hurricane shelter”. “The trained students can do the smaller tasks which would free up the firefighter to do other things they need to do in an emergency situation.” The North Port High School CERT Unit, also participated in the Universal Studio’s “Invitation to Disaster Program”, competing against 10 adult teams.
	Another Florida approach to “Academic CERT” is found in Clay County, Fl. They train their school administrators and school staffs in all 30 of their public schools as CERT Units. They maintain the public school staffed CERT unit proficiencies through CERT newsletters and skills drills at each school., thus maintaining an in-school ready response and recovery capability, prepared to maintain the safety of students at every public school in the county.
“Academic CERT” applies the sound principles of CERT to the “neighborhood” of the school environment. After all, schools represent large “neighborhood” clusters of students housed together five days a week that require disaster preparedness capabilities, response and recovery if disaster occurs during the school day.

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