Detroit Program Trains High Schoolers as Firefighters, EMTs

Sept. 04--The City of Detroit and its public schools are launching a two-year pilot project to train high school students to become firefighters in the city, officials said today.

A group of 30 students will be the first trained when school starts next week, and by the time they graduate from the Cody High School Complex, they will be certified as both firefighters and emergency medical technicians (EMTs).

The goal: to get more Detroit residents into the firefighting ranks.

Mayor Mike Duggan said that most candidates for jobs at the Detroit Fire Department tend to be young suburbanites with a leg up over Detroiters.

"We know that everything in this city starts with a job, and it starts with opportunities, and it starts with our young people growing up believing there will be opportunities for them," Duggan said at a news conference announcing the program at Cody, on the city's west side.

Duggan credited EMT and firefighter unions for telling him as he was running for mayor that most of the candidates applying to be firefighters or EMTs were recent graduates of suburban high schools that offered in-school training and curriculum, putting them ahead of applicants from the city.

"The question became: What could we do?' " Duggan said, and the answer was to create a pipeline of Detroit high school students who graduate ready to join the ranks. "They're going to jump to the front of the line in the hiring process."

If the project is successful, it could be expanded to a second high school on the city's east side or in southwest Detroit, Duggan said.

Current seniors in the program will graduate with a firefighter certification, which takes six months. They'll enter a 12-week EMT training program next summer to get certification because they won't have time to complete both in one academic year, Duggan said.

Classes will be held at Cody's Medicine and Health Academy and additional training at the fire department's regional training facility near the Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport, officials said.

Michelle Parker, principal of the academy, said the program is educating kids with real-world experience and preparing them academically for college.

"We are preparing young adults to be committed citizens who contribute to make our city great," she said, noting that the firefighter and EMT students will graduate with job opportunities readily available.

The starting salary for Detroit firefighters as of March was $31,553, rising to $51,506 after five years, according to the city and the Detroit Fire Fighters Association, the union representing firefighters.

Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins fought back tears as he talked about how he learned from a stranger at an unemployment office that the Detroit Fire Department was hiring 35 years ago, after he had been laid off from a job with the U.S. Postal Service.

"I've been a lifelong resident of this city," he said. "I've seen it burn. I was a firefighter in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, all those Devil's Nights. This is my community. And to provide something like this for the kids, it's awesome. So I take it personally."

Shanteer Simmons, one of the students enrolled in the program, said she was excited for the chance to graduate with marketable skills and make an impact on her community, all from a high school that's bouncing back from tough times. Cody was remodeled last year through the nonprofit Life Remodeled, which brought together thousands of volunteers and hundreds of corporate and civic groups to fund the project and do the work.

"This is a comeback for Cody," she said. "This is something to show everyone else that this is a very good school. ... This will bring me a great opportunity when I graduate and during college."

Contact Matt Helms: 313-222-1450, mhelms@freepress.com or on Twitter @matthelms

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