This new web-site details the successes of the School Resource Officer program that has been so productive in Pulaski County. Recently eight students from Pulaski County were among the first to complete the School Resource Officer student program, Community Works, which combines education and action in order to develop self-esteem, leadership and citizenship skills in both students and teachers.
Pulaski County’s School Resource Officer web-page offers a detailed list of twelve different student programs that can be implemented in the classroom at almost all grade levels. Pulaski County has offered a student police academy to middle and high school students called GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs). GEAR UP allows students with an interest in law enforcement the opportunity to learn the various requirements and skills needed to become a police officer.
School Resource Officers Michael Grigsby and Mike Corell both serve on the Community Council for Character, which strongly supports Character-Centered Teaching. Pulaski County uses Character-Centered Teaching because it is an approach that promotes the development of guiding principles in students. Teachers conduct their academic instruction in a manner which clearly and purposefully reflects their own positive character attributes. Pulaski County’s School Resource Officers also condone the combination of Character-Centered Teaching with the 12 Guiding Principles, which are based on the virtues that underlay American government and civil society. The 12 Guiding Principles describe a basic way of acting rather than specific behaviors, which allows schools to bring their diverse communities together by acknowledging basic virtues that everybody has in common.
The Pulaski County School Resource Officer program offers a comprehensive school safety message detailing the proper procedure to follow in case of disaster. This school safety message is very clear about maintaining safety in all kinds of emergencies- including possible terrorist attacks.
Pulaski’s School Resource Officers provide professional development programs to the staff of the Pulaski County School District. Classes like; “Drug and Drug Paraphernalia Recognition,” “Weapons Identification and Recognition,” “Early Warning- Timely Response,” “Teen Culture and Drug Update,” “Gangs and Gang Identification,” and an “Introduction to the School Resource Officer” are among the many reasons Pulaski’s SRO program has been so successful.
