NEWARK – Students in Worcester Technical High School’s (WTHS) first Homeland Security and Emergency Management class are one step closer to learning the ins and outs of preparedness after completing an online certification course.
Michael Levy’s criminal justice students spent the semester learning the history, evolution and responses to national emergencies and disasters.
“We learned a lot about what did and didn’t work,” he said.
The course, labeled ICS-800, was the first Homeland Security and FEMA certification the students received at the high school, according to Levy.
He said lessons in emergency management will aid the students in their future career paths as first responders.
“Every county, every government structure, every private entity has to have an emergency mitigation plan,” Levy said. “Who is going to fill these jobs? We should start now and seed these career fields.”
Levy, a former public relations officer with the Ocean City Police Department, said his experiences in emergency situations highlighted the need for these courses.
“Essentially, I had to be in the middle of every major emergency situation,” he said. “I had to be trained.”
Now these students are looking to Levy and FEMA’s courses to do the same.
“Unfortunately, things happen at a large scale, and we need to be able to plan for that,” he said.
Levy added that lessons learned in the program are applicable to the community around them, where major events, ranging from hurricanes to Christmas parades, take place. He alluded to the community’s sub-par response to these natural disasters and said his students are receiving the information needed to be successful in their career paths.
“They are getting a more advanced learning,” he said.
Levy used class time to discuss the actions and implications of past catastrophes, from the World Trade Center bombing and Hurricane Katrina to the more recent Ohio State University stabbing.
“These students think of things we still argue about,” he said.
But he said their discussions on historic and current events allowed the students to define terrorism and fear as well as appropriate responses for any possible scenario.
“Some argued that the police were just lucky and were at the right place at the right time,” he said, referring to the Ohio State incident. “But we follow the plan. That is why that that incident went the way it did. Lucky by design and good by habit. It’s not as simple as people may think it is. With terrorism, and in any event, we have to filter all the planning through the proper channels.”
Now that students have a grasp on the national response framework, Levy said the class will move onto their second course, which will provide them with training and resources to operate efficiently in an advisory position.
The high school has plans to expand the criminal justice class even further in the upcoming year, according to Levy and WTHS Principal Caroline Bloxom.
“For many years, Worcester Technical High School has offered the Criminal Justice strand,” Bloxom said. “We are excited that next school year we will be adding the other two strands, Homeland Security and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The three strands align with the six mission areas of the United States Department of Homeland Security — Intelligence and Warning, Protection of Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets, Border and Transportation Security, Domestic Counterterrorism, Defense against Catastrophic Threats and Emergency Preparedness and Response.”
Levy added that the school and its criminal justice students have been supportive and enthusiastic of the new curriculum.
