Today I went to my Boy Scout troop's emergency preparedness merit badge class. The two hour class was both informative and interesting. At three o'clock, my mom sent me to the meeting. The class was taught by one of the many adult leaders of our troop, Mister Huang. The Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge is all about preparing for unexpected situations and knowing how to react given the situation. It was a small class, only six other scouts were present, as well as a couple of adults who were on their phones half the time and sort of listening and poking fun the other half. First, we watched a video about preventing injury during and after an earthquake. While most of it was not new, as our school does an annual earthquake drill, some of it, especially the stuff not related to school, made sense, but probably wouldn't occur to you naturally. For instance, one suggestion was to move your bed away from windows, because they are likely to break during an earthquake. Another was to install automatic gas shutoff, because gas leaks are another potential danger. Additionally, there were suggestions about what to do in the event of an actual earthquake. The instructions varied based on what where you were in the moment, but a common theme was staying calm, avoiding windows, and protecting one's neck.
Afterwards, we did some physical practice. Mr. Huang dragged a dummy human underneath a few tables and guided us through the process of rescuing and administering first aid in this hypothetical situation. The first step was getting the 'rubble' off of the dummy. The lesson here was that it is important to not directly lift the rubble, but to use a stick or other long object as leverage. If you are the victim, you are supposed to conserve energy and moisture, because rescue is likely a few days away. Signalling responders is done via tapping any metallic object, and not by shouting. Having educated us on this point the next step was first aid. The dummy had a leg missing as well as a fake cut on his left arm and a fractured right arm. We then went over the first aid procedure for those injuries, which included information about CPR. Obviously, this was important and to hammer the point home, each of us had to do 60 chest compressions on a CPR dummy.
The next emergency was the active shooter emergency, which is a new requirement that was added rather recently. This was taught in the 'GET OUT, HIDE OUT, TAKE OUT' mantra. GET OUT essentially means to run away, as quickly as possible, in the opposite direction from the sound as gunfire. HIDE OUT refers to barricading and locking the doors, turning off the lights and pretending that the building is deserted. The whole point is to buy time before help can arrive. TAKE OUT refers to aggressively defending oneself. The video we watched showed a group of people swarming the shooter with books, chairs, and other makeshift weaponary. An often forgotten point is that running away is preferred and the other options are for when running is no longer viable. Of course attacking is called a last resort, because it is the riskiest option.
Like the first drill, we also did a practical exercise. We went to different locations and were asked which way we should run if gunfire was heard in such and such direction. After a while, Mr. Huang suddenly left. This unplanned departure left us very confused so we started socializing. However, it was a trap! We heard a strange noise, and all of us froze, it took us a second to realize it was supposed to be gunfire. One of the other Scouts shouted "Run you Idiots!" and we all ran. Mr. Huang was carrying a banana and pointing it like a gun. After that, he called us in and told us that the last class all died because they didn't run away. We later realized that doing an emergency drill was a requirement for the merit badge, which was the point of that whole charade.
The last topic of the day was about mobilization, or organizing a large group of people to accomplish a task. Mr. Huang made us find a 'missing baby' that was somewhere on the facility (which he has hidden there beforehand). After a quick little search, we found the baby in the bushes behind the building. With that, we were free to go. Overall, the reason that the class held my interest so well was that we moved around and put our skills to use, which is why I can now still recall most of what I was supposed to learn.
Afterwards, we did some physical practice. Mr. Huang dragged a dummy human underneath a few tables and guided us through the process of rescuing and administering first aid in this hypothetical situation. The first step was getting the 'rubble' off of the dummy. The lesson here was that it is important to not directly lift the rubble, but to use a stick or other long object as leverage. If you are the victim, you are supposed to conserve energy and moisture, because rescue is likely a few days away. Signalling responders is done via tapping any metallic object, and not by shouting. Having educated us on this point the next step was first aid. The dummy had a leg missing as well as a fake cut on his left arm and a fractured right arm. We then went over the first aid procedure for those injuries, which included information about CPR. Obviously, this was important and to hammer the point home, each of us had to do 60 chest compressions on a CPR dummy.
The next emergency was the active shooter emergency, which is a new requirement that was added rather recently. This was taught in the 'GET OUT, HIDE OUT, TAKE OUT' mantra. GET OUT essentially means to run away, as quickly as possible, in the opposite direction from the sound as gunfire. HIDE OUT refers to barricading and locking the doors, turning off the lights and pretending that the building is deserted. The whole point is to buy time before help can arrive. TAKE OUT refers to aggressively defending oneself. The video we watched showed a group of people swarming the shooter with books, chairs, and other makeshift weaponary. An often forgotten point is that running away is preferred and the other options are for when running is no longer viable. Of course attacking is called a last resort, because it is the riskiest option.
Like the first drill, we also did a practical exercise. We went to different locations and were asked which way we should run if gunfire was heard in such and such direction. After a while, Mr. Huang suddenly left. This unplanned departure left us very confused so we started socializing. However, it was a trap! We heard a strange noise, and all of us froze, it took us a second to realize it was supposed to be gunfire. One of the other Scouts shouted "Run you Idiots!" and we all ran. Mr. Huang was carrying a banana and pointing it like a gun. After that, he called us in and told us that the last class all died because they didn't run away. We later realized that doing an emergency drill was a requirement for the merit badge, which was the point of that whole charade.
The last topic of the day was about mobilization, or organizing a large group of people to accomplish a task. Mr. Huang made us find a 'missing baby' that was somewhere on the facility (which he has hidden there beforehand). After a quick little search, we found the baby in the bushes behind the building. With that, we were free to go. Overall, the reason that the class held my interest so well was that we moved around and put our skills to use, which is why I can now still recall most of what I was supposed to learn.
