SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County ESD 12 Fire and Rescue is a combination department serving the Far East Side of Bexar County, but it’s also helping out high school students.
ESD 12 partnered up with East Central High School to prepare students to become first responders once they turn 18 years old.
“There’s always people that are like, oh, ‘somebody call for help,’ and then there’s others that are like, ‘well, I am the help,’” Pennelopie Talamantez, a senior at the high school, said. “I was like, ‘I want to be able to help and stop it.’”
Talamantes is also the captain of the East Central High School fire cadets. It is a two-year program for juniors and seniors, and it makes for a unique high school experience.
“(We do) some P.T. workouts and then we start our day in the classroom with inspection, checking our uniforms, make sure everything’s straight, we’re clean, then class. And then we start on whatever chapter we’re doing in our book,” Talamantes said.
It’s not just about completing written assignments and putting on the uniform, there is tough physical training as well.
“How much you have to really trust and count on your teammates is something that I wasn’t expecting because everything you verbalize, you must repeat. So everybody’s on the same page. Nobody gets lost or injured,” Talamantes said.
This is clearly an interactive program – one that helps the students learn and prepare them for a career - but the program also helps fill the big need across Texas, the assistant chief said.
“You look at the state website, there’s tons of jobs right now,” said Bexar County ESD 12 Assistant Chief Lawrence Padalecki Jr. “With this, it brings the students that are from this community to these areas, and it gives them that opportunity to get these classes and get the certifications to be able to come work in their community where they grew up, just like me.”