Disaster Drill news release

For Immediate Release

May 4, 2010

LSC holds disaster drill

For the third straight year Lyndon State College held a training exercise for emergency response teams, administration, journalism students and human services students.

This year’s drill was held on Friday April, 30. The staged disaster was an e-coli breakout started with bad pineapple at the dinning hall and snack bar.

“Overall, I was very pleased with the disaster exercise” said Peggy Sherrer, a psychology professor who helped organize the drill with Journalism Professor Dan Williams. The drill was also part of a class that the two professors co-taught, some students were psychology students and others were journalism.

The idea of the class was to teach the physch students how to deal with trauma victims as well as protect themselves and deal with journalists. The Journalism students learned how to interview trauma patients, human service professionals, emergency responders and administrative officials. They also learned how to protect themselves from trauma in the event they have to cover a traumatic event such as this in their future career.

The drill started at noon when participants gathered in ASAC 100 to receive their assignments and begin their days. The students that were not in the classes acted as victims, parents, concerned citizens and observers.

The drill was completely planned out step by step and gave students specific instructions on where to go and when to go there. The psychology students worked with the victims and the concerned citizens to set up a shelter and provided food and water to the victims.

The journalism students were busy chasing down their stories. They attempted to interview victims, and the human-services people. The two groups of students worked together to gain a real-life experience. The journalism students also interviewed administration and attended a press conference held by Bob Whittaker, dean of institutional advancement.

The scenario saw two students with weekend immune systems die and four students be hospitalized.

In the past LSC has hosted a boiler explosion, a school shooting and now an e-coli break out.