Merced Union High School District

With smoke rising from the plane wreckage and sirens blaring, Buhach Colony High’s Emergency Medical Responder sprang into action, racing to treat injured passengers spread out on the open field. There were burn victims, broken bones, plenty of blood and an assortment of injuries for the students to assess as they transported the injured passengers from the scene.

 

Professional first responders from the Atwater Fire Department, CalFire, AMR and the Merced County Sheriffs were on hand for guidance as multiple Buhach Colony’s CTE pathways collaborated to put together a Mass Casualty Incident training session on Friday. Over 160 students from the EMR, theatre, forensics and photography pathways participated in the training that centered around a hijacked plane that crashed onto the field. 

 

There were 45 theatre students who used their make-up skills to create realistic looking injuries. Each injured passenger was wearing a lanyard with their injury printed on their card. The theatre students played the part of injured passengers from the plane and they were moaning and yelling in pain as the EMR students arrived on the scene. The EMR students then transported the injured to a tarp where they could be treated by other medical professionals. Meanwhile, forensics students were collecting evidence to determine what caused the plane to crash and who was responsible. There was also a crime scene involving a dead passenger who had narcotics and a large sum of cash. 

 

“It was very adrenaline rushing, very chaotic, it’s an amazing way to provide a real perspective of a real-world incident,” said Buhach Colony EMR student Nyla Browder. “I think this is learning at its finest. Even though it’s not real, we put our heart and our love into it. Our amazing teacher, Ms. Lawson, put us through immense training, a lot of teaching, study guides that helped us know what to do and prepare for this.”

 

That was the goal of the training session, to give each CTE pathway an opportunity for their students  to use the skills they’ve learned in the classroom and apply it in a real-world situation. Buhach Colony CTE Health Science and Medical Occupations Instructor Jasmine Alexander Lawson says the students came together to create a realistic emergency scenario that allows them to apply real-world skills in triage, patient care, scene investigation, special effects makeup, acting, and event documentation. 

 

This is the second year Buhach Colony has put their students through a real-life training scenario like this. Last year the training scenario was the aftermath of an earthquake. The training can help students get a better understanding if this is a field they want to continue as a career after high school. 

 

“Being able to use everything that we've been able to learn throughout the year and last year in forensics, was really beneficial,” said Buhach Colony junior Elianna Navarrete, who is in the forensics pathway. “It was also beneficial to see how you interact with EMR and other people on the scene. We were able to document both the victims and the scene itself, and being able to gather as many clues and evidence as possible, so that if the case does go to trial, we'd be able to document it and prosecute it correctly.”

 

After months of planning for the training session how did the Buhach Colony students do? “I would give my class a 10 out of 10,” Browder said. “They did a phenomenal job of treating each patient, handing out the correct triage colors and moving the patents.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.