Red Cross training session gives teachers global lessons

The horrors of disaster, war and abject poverty flashed across the screen at a recent Red Cross training workshop at Colfax High School Thursday.

John Caskey, a Red Cross attorney from Spokane, spoke for four hours on the current work the organization performs in America throughout the world.

Caskey gave applicable tips to the high school teachers in attendance on how to make relief work and international crisis relevant to their students.

“There are designer clothes and jeans that are made by child slaves in Jordan,” he said. He added there are an estimated 27 million slaves working in the world today.

“Kids want to know this information,” he said.

Attending were math and science teachers Kathryn Vogler and Christopher Claussen, school counselor Christa Boyd and social studies teacher Ross Swan.

As part of the state’s Continuing Education program, some of the teachers received continuing education credits for attending the workshop.

Vogler said she walked away with a bulk of new information on humanitarian law.

“I had no idea about the vast numbers of child soldiers,” she said.

Vogler said some of the information could be indirectly applied in her math and science classes.

“With war, students could ask about a particular topic. If I know some background, I am much more able to answer their questions. I just need to be a global learner. We all do,” Vogler said. “None of us anymore simply teach one subject. Everything we teach is woven into something else.”

Caskey runs the humanitarian law program for the Red Cross in Spokane and also serves on the board of directors for the Inland Northwest Red Cross. He practiced international law for 30 years.