20051214 McDaniel students tackle bioterrorism scenario by Heidi Schroeder for The Westminster Eagle

20051214 McDaniel students tackle bioterrorism scenario by Heidi Schroeder for The Westminster Eagle

McDaniel students tackle bioterrorism scenario

12/14/05, By Heidi Schroeder

Members of the Carroll County emergency response team gathered at McDaniel College last week to discuss the release of an aerosol of plague at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.

But not to worry - there were no patients flooding area hospitals, nor emergency notices being released to the public.

Instead, experts gathered at McDaniel for a bioterrorism exercise in a class, "National Security in a Changing World," hosted by Dr. Volker Franke.

The exercise is a cumulative project for the 14 upperclassmen enrolled in Franke's class this semester. In the scenario, each student is assigned the role of a member of the county's emergency response team.

Members of the Carroll County emergency response team, including emergency management coordinator Bill Martin, health officer Larry Leitch, HAZMAT team chair Jeff Kreimer, hospital infection control coordinator Brenda Kitchen, and Westminster police chief Jeff Spaulding and public works assistant director Jeff Glass, also took part in the project, as students took those roles in the class.

Each student was assigned a role on the response team, and interviewed their corresponding official in preparation for the Dec. 7 exercise.

For the drill, students were broken into two teams of seven and asked to prepare for a briefing to the mayor of Westminster. Former mayor Kevin Dayhoff reprised his role for the exercise - becoming mayor again for the night.

After an initial briefing, each team was given two updates on the scenario and five minutes to strategize solutions to each.

Over the course of two presentations, each team created a response to the possible spread of the plague.

In the mock scenario, nearly 3,000 guests of the Meyerhoff are "exposed" to the aerosol during a sold-out performance.

Students proposed everything from road blocks and quarantines to hiding emergency responders in an underground bunker to avoid media scrutiny.

At the end of the evening, the officials in attendance credited the student for their research and solutions.

"I truly believe that scenarios are more difficult to deal with than the real thing," Spaulding said, explaining that there are hard facts in a real incident - which are not always evident in an exercise.

Senior Alicia Feuillet played the role of Carroll County Hospital Center's infection control coordinator. She complimented the members of the county's emergency response team on hand - including Martin, Leitch, Spaulding, Kreimer and Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association liaison Leon Fleming - on the challenges of their jobs.

"We definitely learned to respect what you guys do," Feuillet said after her team's presentation.

Class after Sept. 11

After teaching national security classes at George Washington University and having prepared national security case exercises for Syracuse University for years, Franke first offered his national security course at McDaniel in the fall semester of 2001.

But before the semester was a month under way, four planes were hijacked in real life, and Franke's class changed - along with the rest of the world.

"Sept. 11 made me change the class and focus on terrorism," he said.

With this new focus, Franke contacted Westminster's then-mayor Dayhoff about participating in and helping to prepare an emergency response exercise at a local level.

"I wanted to show (the students) that terrorism is not just important when you live in New York City or Washington, D.C.," Franke said.

Franke credited Dayhoff with sharing information about who would be involved in an emergency response and for his continued participation in the class each year.

"Now, we actually have a following," Franke said.

One of those participants is Spaulding, who said afterward that he was impressed with students' responses, given that they had only their research to rely on.

"I think that they did their homework and they were very analytical in their approach," Spaulding said. "It's always good to hear other people's ideas.

This was the first year for Martin to fully participate in the exercise - in the past he had only participated in interviews, not in the actual briefings - but said he is already looking forward to next year.

"Exercise is becoming the norm," Martin said of the county's own attempts at emergency preparedness.

He said the students performed well both in research and under pressure.

"You're taking a bunch of young adults who have more than likely not been exposed to problems of that nature, particularly to that depth," Martin said. "I thought they did very well."

E-mail Heidi Schroeder at Heidi Schroeder@patuxent.com

WestGovNet: Colleges and schools McDaniel College, Colleges and schools McDaniel College Dr. Franke Fall BioTerrorism Simulation Exercise, Dayhoff Kevin Dayhoff press clippings

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