Future First Responders

Did you know that Lampasas High School offers law enforcement, fire, and EMT classes? If you do, it’s thanks to the efforts of two of LHS’s finest, Michael Tatum and Steve Haviland, founders of the courses training the next generation of first responders. When we came across a video of the class, hard at work, training for competition, we knew there was a brilliant story to be told under all that gear – Lord knows why it took us so long to come around!

Together, Mr. Tatum and Mr. Haviland have been training students, both in and out of the classroom, to bravely fill the shoes of a dwindling but desperately needed part of our society. Students attend class every day as an elective, and train afterschool 3-4 times a week, for an hour or more. Offered to Seniors only, completion of the EMT course allows them to apply to take the National Registry Certification upon graduation. Students of all 3 courses also take part in competitions to test their skill-sets - all 3 teams advanced to the State level last year, and hope to repeat that success this weekend!

The teams left for San Antonio Friday night to compete in a regional competition hosted by the Texas Public Service Teachers’ Association. Ten students on the law enforcement team will compete in 5 events: building searches, felony traffic stops, fingerprint listing, standardized field sobriety tests, and cell extraction. The EMT team will compete in a patient assessment event for time and accuracy. The Fire pupils will compete in a bunker gear race, a timed event. Mr. Haviland says that while the cut off time for an individual to accurately don their gear for State certification is 1 minute, the goal is to get it done in 30 seconds. As of now, one student, Sophomore JD Obeda, has successfully hit that mark! Other events include a search/rescue and individual/team agility courses (with all their gear on!).
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Both coaches would like to shout out 3 students that have stuck it out with them for the long-haul, Sr. Bryce Meeley, Sr. Jason Brock, and Jr. Tony Carey. Good luck to you all this weekend and to our readers, stay tuned for a report on all the action!