Camp aims to build better bonds between students, school officials – School News Network

Multi-districts — Andrew Nagy, a crime scene specialist with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, demonstrated how to use a fingerprint brush, encouraging students to try it out.

Varae Veatch, a sixth-grader at Kenowa Hills Elementary School, took a paintbrush, dipped it in black fingerprint powder and began swirling it across the paper to make fingerprints.

“That was pretty cool,” Varae said. “I didn’t know they used a fingerprint brush to help solve cases. That was interesting to learn about.”

Varae was one of about 50 students from Rockford, Sparta, Comstock Park, Kent City, Kenowa Hills and Northview school districts who recently attended Camp CP with a Deputy at Comstock Park’s Pine Island Elementary. It was an opportunity for students to meet the school resource officers who work in their districts and learn more about the job and responsibilities of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, Deputy Kresten Green said.

Counselors and school resource officers select fifth- and sixth-grade students from their districts to attend the camp. Green said the goal is for officers and students to build bonds so students feel comfortable coming to officers when something happens at school.

Twenty-one officers are stationed in Kent County schools as part of the Kent County Sheriff’s School Resource Officer Program, a partnership between schools, communities and law enforcement. It is a proactive approach to law enforcement focused on working with teachers, students and parents to reduce crime in and around the school district and its community.

The students visited several stations that focused on different departments within the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, such as the dive team, marine patrol, corrections team, fingerprint unit, K9 unit, mounted unit and drones. They also worked with officers for fun: bowling, visited a virtual reality game room and went to Craig’s Cruisers.

Part of getting to know each other involved asking questions, and the students asked a lot of them, like, “Why does K9 Kai have titanium teeth?”

“Because he tried to bite the cage, which damaged his teeth and could have caused serious injury,” said foster Krystal Stuart, who is the owner of the German shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix. “It protects his jaw.”

One more question: Do officers always wear gloves when taking fingerprints?

“I would do it because it’s really dirty out there, and when we do things like this, we don’t want to leave my fingerprints on it,” said crime scene specialist Andrew Nagy.

Near the fingerprint station, Sergeant Nicholas Reamer and Deputy Michael Shoop, who both work in corrections, helped students try on riot gear.

“It’s hard to breathe,” said Rockford sixth-grader Ari Mikrut, who was wearing a gas mask and took a large plastic shield from Reamer. “And this is heavy. I’m not sure how they do it all.”

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