Pretty neat:

A gunman invaded the high school Wednesday, but the assassin was Gillette Police Officer Randy Monk. And a group of teens were given the chance to learn tactics employed by police during a school emergency.

“This is a decision-making exercise … split-second decisions,” Monk says to the group as part of the latest session of the Youth Law Academy, which presents kids with various aspects of law enforcement.

School Resource Officer Dirk Blackmer said it’s not only about teaching emergency police tactics, but also about spending time with students. “We’re not out writing these kids tickets, we’re working with them,” he says. “Just esprit de corps.”

They are armed with converted 9 mm Glock pistols that shoot tiny paint pellets the size of a pencil eraser and equipped with space-age-looking protective helmets and padded vests, all of which police nationally use for training.

In three-person teams, the teens search down a hallway leading to the school’s cafeteria in what Officer John Lawrence described to them as “a worst-case scenario.”

Posted in uncategorized on February 18th, 2005 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |