Students get lesson on emergency services
DARBY TOWNSHIP » Delaware County Technical High School students learned about working together as a team during emergency scenarios held on Friday.
Jerome Fletcher joined the Vo-Tech program to learn about law enforcement when he was influenced by his cousin who is a Philadelphia police officer. During the active shooter scenario, another student officer ahead of Fletcher was “shot” by the gunman who had barricaded himself in a room. The mentoring police officers gave the students pointers on how to interact with the suspect and how to protect themselves while in the room next door. Fletcher took the lead to talk down the gunman, portrayed by instructor Joe Perezi. Fletcher listened to his mentors telling him to create a rapport with the suspect.
“Joe, do you have any children?” Fletcher asked from the other room. The gunman kept the plastic riffle aimed at that doorway during the interaction. When the suspect said he said one child, Fletcher encouraged him to give himself up and see his kid again.
“It wasn’t easy,” Fletcher said about improvising the conversation with the gunman. “I wanted to connect with him. I knew family would work. We had to talk about something that he loves and cherishes.”
Fletcher is a karate teacher and he applied that background to this scenario when the officers explained that continuing a conversation with the suspect is crucial. He successfully convinced the suspect to give himself up. The officers noted to the students that they have to be aware of a secondary weapon as they entered the room to detain the suspect.
Fletcher, who is considering a career in law enforcement, said the demonstration showed him that people deserve a second chance in life to change their ways.
In another evolution, Darby Borough Police Officer Joe Spina oversaw two student officers responding to a domestic disturbance. When the student officers identified themselves, one of the people involved charged at them.
“It shows them how quickly it can escalate,” Spina said. “It comes down to officer safety.”
The student officers detained the two people involved by placing them in handcuffs and they began searching them for weapons. Spina talked them through how to get both sides of the story.
“They get a taste of what we do,” Spina said about the “day in the life of a first-responder” held at the Delaware County Emergency Services Training Center. “We try to give them as much insight on what’s going on in our world.”
Spina taught the students to stay close to their partner, keep in communication and keep each other safe. Kelly McHugh, a captain with Darby station 21, taught the students in the fire service about similar concepts involving teamwork. She said the students learned to coordinate tasks with other students who may serve with a different fire company.
“That’s first-responders in general,” she said about working as a team.
Her group walked up the fire escape stairs to the fourth floor in full protective gear and SCBA with their equipment and they operated from the standpipe to perform an interior attack in a high-rise building. However, there was not a live fire used in the scenario, the students advanced the charged hoseline into what would have been the fire room.
“They get exhausted after a while,” she said about a physically demanding
RESPONDERS » PAGE 7