The only noise heard is screaming. Screaming for a friend, a sister, a teacher and a student. Sprawled across a field after a terrible accident lies an entire class, heavily injured. And saving the lives of this class was put in the arms of these students in training. Thankfully, it’s all fake, used in preparing our future doctors and help.

On April 9, this exercise was demonstrated using volunteers from our theatre team. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) gives a group of young teenagers a scenario and has several “extras” act out the scene with injuries they must treat.

Sophomore Connor Pisczek, who is an employee of the CERT, needed to recruit victims. He spoke to a member of our theatre club and they said that they’d love to participate. Pisczek was proud of the outcome of our participants.
“They were some of the best victims we’ve had,” Pisczek said. “They got really into it and made it difficult for the workers to concentrate through the chaos. It was good. Really good.”

“The event went really well,” theatre teacher Ms. Shelton said. “It was interesting to see the comparison between our gore makeup and the way the company did theirs. It was a really great training because many of my students had realistic reactions. My students had to learn how to develop a character in an impromptu manner.”

The victims’ injuries differed from terrible burns to spilled intestines. The victims were told what their injuries were and were then told whether they would survive or not. Then, they were thrown into the experience immediately causing them to have to think on their feet.

“I felt like it was real,” junior Dakota Barnett said, who had a severe injury that led to his death. “The workers did the best that they could for the situation they were in. They had about 21 serious injuries injuries, and they adapted to the stress of it all.”

The CERT does events like these frequently, but encourages people to try to take breaks in between. The intensity can be too much for some people.

Sophomore Julia Wolz had a rod coming out of her arm with severe bruising. The director of the event told her and a few others to make the experience difficult for the workers.

“I felt like my blood pressure was high,” Wolz said. “It was very intense. I was determined to be in critical condition, but I was left on my own. I thought the event was really cool, because it made us all think on our feet. It taught us all to be ready for anything.”