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SL Rotary Scribes Report
May 10 Meeting, SLCC
Our Program was introduced by Sgt. Jason Kik of the area police dept., whom is familiar with all the policing and public safety efforts that are ongoing in our area. He introduced Dep. John Smoes, of the OCSD, who is the Resource Officer at Spring Lake Public Schools, and also provides enforcement services to Spring Lake Township. Deputy Smoes is somewhat of a younger version of Sgt (and member) Jason, since he started learning about policing matters in our area as a Sheriff’s Cadet in 2009. Dep Smoes attended police academy at GVSU, and also at a training program for area police personnel. He is part of a Critical Response Team, and trains new police officers in proper procedures and protocol.
In Ottawa County all public schools have at least one Response Officer assigned to a District. Some of the larger school districts have 2 police officers. Every parochial school, and charter school, has a police presence but not necessarily someone assigned full time. Dep. Smoes will visit the charter school campus, sometimes daily, and others visit the parochial school campus. The Sheriff’s Dept. and its public agencies believe that having a physical presence in a school, and at certain of its functions, is a valid method to not only encourage positive interaction with students, but to also announce that police are present if issues require addressing from a public safety perspective.
At least 3 lock down drills are conducted at a school annually, so students, teaching staff and parents know that there is a protocol to follow for things like active shooter being on campus so the Avoid, Deny and Defend responses can be implemented. Teachers, Administrators, and Students are all exposed to the ability to respond to the situations that develop. Part of Dep. Smoes presence also is to advise on what should be a legal response to a situation, whether to the prosecutors office, or administration and parents. Also, sometimes in plain clothes, and sometimes in uniform, the police attend school functions. Students learn that police officers can be trusted and could be asked to resolve very difficult issues with people having problems, or wanting to create issues with others or themselves. In Spring Lake Schools, advice on availability of financial grants to retrofit building access was rewarded by an over $200,000 grant to upgrade security.
One of Dep. Smoes special area of emphasis is to be ready to utilize the Law Enforcement Notification services to promote a rapid response to developing situations which could cause damage or injury to persons or property in a school setting. It is not uncommon to call in a canine search, health inquiry, or compliance check to attempt to avoid issues that may be occurring around and in the school system. Most of the issues deal with MIP’s , misdemeanor criminal violations, and some B&E’s that usually are to feed the funds for drug habits.
The desire of the Resource Officer is to teach the TEAM approach to interaction with students and teachers: Teaching, Educating And Mentoring. The role model approach, with friendly, observant and a respectful approach to the students and teachers helps create a good relationship between the parties. Part of the function includes helping elementary school age students to focus on not abusing substances, avoiding bullying, abuse and to discuss domestic abuse if it bothers the student. Surprisingly, there is also a need to help with younger parents to provide instructions on appropriate child care and to prevent all child abuse.
As the student advances the need for a certificate to operate a boat is helped by providing boater safety course to avoid the issue of non compliance by the younger operator. Also, Good Decision Making is emphasized. Dep Smoes observed that loading a car with lots of teenagers who are enjoying themselves, but playing with their phones on various apps, is a recipe for disaster. Again, the Resource Officer gives where he or she can the observation that texting and driving or use of substances while driving, will lead to tragedy in case of accidents. One way to show the younger operator the problems is to invite new drivers to ride in an EMS vehicle, listen to the comments of an EMS driver, have a rescue person speak to the drivers, and in some cases because of Marine patrols, observe a rescue and recovery operation. All these opportunities of providing instruction are part of the program provided by the Resource Officer.
After inquiry by a member, Dep. Smoes observed that one of the greatest safety challenges that will be confronting young people will be dealing in a safe way with the easy availability of Marijuana. Over the years, alcohol has been the greatest substance abuse factor for injury and death to young people. Now you can include Marijuana and its serving in many different forms and levels of potency. It is illegal for anyone to operate a motor vehicle using any Marijuana , but the problem is the carryover effect of prior use, plus the different response in different individuals to levels of use. The Resource Officers will attempt to alert students to the potential for issues however statistics have shown that sometimes people do not listen to cautionary comments, and want to experience something for themselves. That will be dangerous as prior record keeping does not have the experiences with both alcohol and marijuana in the statistics. Each substance is illegal at certain levels and ages, but both are available in the School District, so the parents, Resource Officer and concerned advisors will do their best to alert young people of the dangers of driving while impaired, and hopefully the combined efforts will thwart the apprehension that is now prevalent.
The other part of the program included awarding two top Spring Lake students a scholarship each to recognize their respective outstanding achievements and efforts leading to their graduation: Grace Van Legonvink was awarded the Pat Winsiemeus Scholar recipient. Lauren Schippe received the Interact Scholarship, both awards made possible by the Rotarians of SL who support our youth program!! Grace plans to attend Michigan Tech, and Lauren will be at Aquinas in GR. Great ladies, who are going to be Rotarians..
YOUR SCRIBE, Tom Boven…(filling in for Randy White this week).. |
