How Local Emergency Services Help Educate to Keep Us Safe
On a crisp fall morning, kindergarten students from Belleville Elementary get the opportunity to have some new teachers. As they flock into the Belleville fire station, firefighters eagerly greet them, prepared to educate their young audience about how to keep safe if they ever were to find themselves in a fire. Firefighters are prepared to demonstrate gearing up and talking using the Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), so that if they ever have to help one of their new students, they will know what they look and sound like and won’t be frightened.
It is an important lesson. In an emergency panicking can be a normal response, so seeing an unfamiliar person in a fire safe suit can be a little daunting! Annual sessions like this one in Belleville enable emergency responders to get to know the public and youth so that they can be their best resource in the event of an emergency.
Taking time out of their normal daily routine is an important service to the public schools. Educating young students empowers them and hopefully helps reduce accidents or at least lessens the impact. A visit like this with Belleville’s firefighters helps kids know what they need to know at home. It starts a dialogue between kids and their families about planning for an emergency. Questions like – “Where is our family’s meet up spot?” help reassure children that they know what to do in a fire or in a medical emergency.
For Principal Kelsey Schmit, it is an example of just one way emergency workers help the schools, their families and their students in Belleville.
Schmit reflects, “We feel extremely fortunate to have such a close working relationship between the school district and our emergency responders. Students look forward to these visits annually and it helps to build trust between the police and fire departments, EMS and our students.”
As emergency responders educate kids and their families in the Belleville community this fall, the hope is that they are working from a prevention standpoint. The more students are educated about safety, the more likely they are to stay safe. It is a model that works from the youngest to the oldest of students. Today it’s educating kindergarteners – next time the discussion may be centered around the topic of texting and driving – all are relevant and all such educational opportunities are designed to create awareness to keep everyone safe!
