Students learning about First Response Emergency at the Academy. (Tim Bennett/Cortland Voice).
The 10th annual Cortland Junior Police Academy will end today, after a full two weeks of fun and educational training for young students around the Cortland County area.
The program began on Monday, July 29th.
Students from schools within every school district in the county along with a few from surrounding counties sign up for this great program.
The academy provides students with classroom instructions along with physical and hands on training.
"We start every morning out with physical training," said School Resource Officer at Cortland High and Director of the Academy, Rob Reyngoudt, "We set it up like a real police academy. We then have different opportunities for them during the two weeks. We put them through gun safety. We expose them to different law enforcement agencies that come in, so that they get a well rounded view of all the opportunities in law enforcement."
Agencies that had come in to speak to the students include the FBI, Secret Service, the DEA and many more, according to Reyngoudt.
Throughout the program, students get a better understanding of various laws and rules that apply to situations Cortland Police Officers deal with on a regular daily basis.
"In our ten years, we've had some of our graduates become Police Officers," said Reyngoudt. "We have Police Officers in the area who are graduates. We have some firefighters. Some are going into the military. In fact, we have two that I know as of right now who are lieutenants in the army."
This past Wednesday, students were being trained on first response emergency services.
The academy had the Fire Department come in to teach the students about first aid, CPR, how to use an AED and about Narcan delivery.
Here is a clip of three students speaking on their experience and their favorite moments at the academy:
"They want to be here," added Reyngoudt. "It's not a punishment. It's not a camp designed to help 'straighten kids out.' They want to be here because they have an interest in it and we love having them."
