CWC hosts safety symposium for officers

Central Wyoming College’s Rural Justice Training Center, Fremont County School District and the Lander and Riverton Police Departments hosted the School Safety Symposium June 17-19. The Wyoming School Resource Officers Association and Wyoming D.A.R.E. put this conference on for law enforcement and educators throughout Wyoming and the surrounding states. This year more than 50 people attended the conference.

The event had six guest speakers during the course of three days which covered topics in D.A.R.E, tactical training and room entry, current drug trends and why kids are getting sicker quicker.

“All the speakers were very interesting and had high energy,” said Chuck Carr, CWC’s director of campus security. Four of Carr’s student interns attended the conference; learning procedures on building searches, focuses on mental health, drug and alcohol and more. The students also presented the flag at the start of the conference.

“I wanted them to have the opportunity to see what a law enforcement conference was like and to be around people that are in the career they are pursuing with their degrees,” Carr said. “School officers have a different mentality than most law enforcement; they are more community oriented and like to build relationships with students and work with them.”

“The speakers were upbeat and had so much knowledge it was overwhelming,” said Bridgette McGinness, CWC student intern. “It definitely showed me what I wanted to go into and I would like to work at a police department.”

The students also attended a simunitions course where they experienced real life scenarios. The School Resource Officers had the training for the interns and other participants. Each scenario was a different situation where attendees had roles as either cops or the perpetrator. Each scenario had two, three or four person teams of cops which were given a quick synopsis of the situation and then the teams entered the scene as if it were an actual situation. Team members were coached throughout the scenario but if a mistake was made, they were shot with a simunition round; a non-lethal round made of detergent based water soluble marking compound.

“It was awesome to work with cops and gave me a better direction on a career path,” said Billy Yaracz, CWC student intern. “It made me want to do it even more.”

“Next year the conference will be in Cheyenne and we hope to have a great turn out,” said Cody Myers, school resource officer. “This was our sixth conference and the fourth one CWC has hosted.”