Fifteen high school students experienced a behind the scenes look at law enforcement, graduating from the weeklong Jacksonville Teen Police Academy.
High school junior Alex Trace said another student gave him a flyer about the program and he decided to try it. He’s determined to do it again next year and get a better time on the firefighting portion of the course — this year, he got 2 minutes and 53 seconds.
“They put you in full firefighter gear with the air tank and everything,” Trace said. “You have to crawl blindfolded with a hose.”
Jacksonville police put on the program for area high school and middle school students, each taking place during different weeks. High schoolers graduated Friday — 18 middle school students did the same the week prior — after learning about such things as basic firearm safety and trainings with different agencies, like the fire department.
“The high school went more into depth about a lot of things,” said Avery Culvertson, one of the participants. “We got to learn how to like stitch up a wound; but in the middle school one, we just did CPR.”
Josh Radliff, one of the student resource officers who helps run the program, said the content for the academy is diverse, though 90% of ends up being fun. Students start off learning about handcuffs, their basic rights during a traffic stop and how an officer performs a traffic stop, but he said it escalates after that.
During the week, students were taken in golf carts to show what distracted driving and phone use can look like, had a gun safety course and learned about close-quarter combat.
Radliff said students end up making new friends and learning more about the world. He said he’s seen this kind of program be helpful students including those who typically might be a bit more reserved or anxious.
“We’ve had kids come through before that maybe need to take a knee out from an exercise and take a break,” he said. “And we’ll either talk with with them, see if they’re comfortable enough to get back into one of the scenarios; or if not, we tell them the same thing, like, ‘At least go up and give it an effort.'”
The program is funded by the Jacksonville Police Department with assistance from some sponsors.
“I want to pursue a career in law, not exactly law enforcement, but law in general, so it helps me get an intro,” junior Aurora Mauzy said. “I get to talk to lawyers that are in the type of law that I want pursue, and it helps me get an idea on what I want to do with my career and at least get an outline.”
Another cadet, Devyn Martino, said she wants to go into some type of scientific field.
“I’ve been leaning more towards like chemistry or engineering, and I thought about going into forensic chemistry,” Martino said. ” I can talk to some of the detectives and stuff and like they kind of helped me figure out what I would be doing.”