The University Police Department (UPD), in conjunction with Tangipahoa Parish, hosted a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class in the University Center. The class is part of an eight part, 16-hour class that is designed to train citizens on how to handle any kind of catastrophe.

The class, held on Tuesday, Sept. 13, gave citizens the opportunity to learn the proper ways to handle disasters in order to become the first responders for their community.

“The main goal is to prepare people for a disaster,” said Sgt. Chris Durham of UPD.

According to Durham, the original idea for CERT was created by the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985. The concept centered on the notion that citizens would likely be on their own immediately after a disaster.

“After the 1987 earthquake in California, a lot of people spontaneously volunteered,” Sgt. Durham said about the origins of CERT. “A lot of the volunteers got hurt because they had no training.”

According to the CERT Participation Manual, the LAFD created a training program and it was adopted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to spread it nationwide. In 2003, President George W. Bush asked all Americans to volunteer in the service of their country and CERT was adopted as one of the primary programs offered to meet the President’s challenge.

The class was led by Tangipahoa Parish CERT Coordinator Kevin Bosarge. Bosarge guided the class through a presentation that talked about different types of disasters that ranged from manmade to natural.

People who attended the class were given a CERT Participation Manual that details a number of disasters and how to deal with them. Additionally, the manual has instructions on how to deal with a number of other issues such as shutting off the natural gas meter and turning off the fuse box.

One of the volunteers, senior criminal justice major Kourtney Rhea, hopes that fellow students will take advantage of the opportunity to get this training.

“This is an invaluable resource in addition to their education that they are receiving at Southeastern,” Rhea said when asked about student participation in the class. “It is a wonderful certification program for criminal justice majors who want to put something on their résumé.”

In order to take the class, those interested must sign up for an available class date by contacting Bosarge at [email protected]. There will be two other classes offered this year in Amite, La.

Those interested in learning more about disaster preparedness in Tangipahoa Parish can visit tangisafe.com. For more information on CERT, visit citizencorps.gov/cert.