NATCHEZ &045; Natchez-Adams School District personnel are going to be prepared for anything.

A group of teachers, administrators and security guards that work in the schools are participating in Community Emergency Response Teams training this week to handle disasters.

The CERT training, offered by the county Emergency Management Agency, covers everything from terrorists’ attacks, weather disasters, emergency preparedness, triage and fires.

The school personnel are the second CERT team to be trained using grant money filtered down from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the state and then the county.

A Co-Lin/Alcorn team has already been trained and plans are in the works to develop a downtown team, a Kingston team, a Foster Mound team and any other community group that wants to be involved, said Tracy Floyd of the county EMA office.

&uot;I think it is something all school personnel and people in the community should get involved in,&uot; said Walter Mackel, a security guard at Morgantown Elementary School. &uot;If you have people ready and willing to get out and to do this you can minimize the disaster.&uot;

The training, which can be scheduled at any time, includes classroom setting lessons and actual scenarios to practice skills, including fire suppression.

Each CERT member receives an emergency bag that contains bandages, protective gear and tools that may be need in case of an emergency.

Amy Smith, who teaches second-grade at McLaurin Elementary and coaches tennis at the high school, said she had learned a great deal since the training started on Monday.

&uot;I’ll be more prepared and I’ll have the tools necessary to help out in any situation,&uot; she said.

The courses are offered on a volunteer basis, but schoolteachers do receive credit toward certification.

&uot;I felt like coming was very important just in case a disaster occurs,&uot; Morgantown PE teacher Lillian Johnson said.

The grant allows for $3,000 per team for equipment and training, Floyd said. The course is 20 hours long and can be offered on Saturdays. A team does not require a set amount of members. There are 16 on the school district team and 13 on the Co-Lin/ASU team.

CERT members are not licensed medical technicians and are trained to work as a team to perform head-to-toe assessments, set up treatment areas, apply basic treatments, identify greater needs and communicate with medical professionals.

&uot;It’s something everybody should do,&uot; Mackel said. &uot;It is better to have it and not need it than to need it an not have it.&uot;