Police academy visits

SAMANTHA PAWER

On Tuesday, Oct. 13, grades 5-7 at Richmond Jewish Day School joined Richmond's Az-Zahraa Islamic School and Surrey's Bibleway Christian Academy in an exercise with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Junior Police Academy.

Students learned some of the many things police officers have to do every day and what it takes to become a police officer. We completed an obstacle course where we had to roll around, jump over obstacles and run. We had to solve crimes and think of ways to find pieces of evidence. We also learned how to march like constables. Along with all of this came a lot of push-ups.

After all the hard work, we got to eat our lunch and play outside with the kids from the other schools.

Suddenly, an officer came over and told us to leave the soccer field. At first, we didn't know why we were asked to leave the field but then we were told that Air One, an RCMP helicopter was about to land right there! Finally, the helicopter landed and the propeller stopped moving. We were allowed to get close to the helicopter and even look inside. It was so cool to see all the different buttons and gadgets. We also learned that in an RCMP helicopter there is one police officer and one pilot.

From the Air One helicopter the police officer tries to locate criminals, with the bright lights shining down on the streets below.

Later on, one of the officers brought out his dog and told us that he was training him to be a police dog. The officer showed us what his dog will be trained to do and explained that it takes a long time to train police dogs. The whole day was a great experience that all three schools shared together.

Samantha (Sam) Pawer is an avid writer and a Grade 7 student at Richmond Jewish Day School.

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