Community Education

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Created on Friday, 30 October 2015 20:10
Written by Victor Mwangi

community educationST JOHNSBURY - The Police and Fire station have been working together with the ST. Johnsbury schools to better the education system. A few months ago, police officers in saint Johnsbury started a program where they would greet students in the morning as they arrived at the ST. Johnsbury town school.

With a great positive feed back from the parents and the students, the school has now decided to organize mini fieldtrips for the sixth graders to visit the police and the fire station. This project is set to help the students get to know more about this departments and what they do for the community.

A group of sixth graders got a chance to visit the two departments mid this week on Wednesday. The students were divided into two groups based on what they individual interests were. The students then got to interview a police officer and a fire fighter in their prospective groups after being given a tour of both stations.

Detective Lester Cleary who got to be interviewed by the students said, “it’s a great way to inspire and motivate this kids by showing them where we spend most of our time.” Cleary who has done several workshops at the school appreciates the type of relationship being built with the children.

Aside form creating better relationships between the youth and the authority officials; both community organizations want to educate the students on what they could do to contribute to the community as individuals. Lexiss Hamel a sixth grade student said she wants to be a police officer when she grows up.

According to Heather Mulligan a sixth grade math teacher, who helped patron and set up the fieldtrip, “it has taken a lot of coordination and planning between the schools and the departments to match up both schedules.” She also added that with the interests and excitement shown from the kids, it has helped in getting the whole project underway.

Fire fighter Phil Hawthorne who recently moved to the northeast kingdom says that for not being here long enough he feels that the department does a lot when it comes to working with the youth in general. Phil who got to be interviewed by the students also said “ its very important that the students feel like more people care about their education then they might be more inclined to peruse their education a little bit better.”