BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Staff Writer
LAKE BUTLER — Last year, Union County High School expanded its Career Tech Education (CTE) options, offering students a chance to experience jobs that they might consider after graduation. These jobs are often those in which a prospect can attend a training or certification course of fairly short duration after graduation, rather than going into a profession that requires four or more years of education/training to enter. Programs of this type offered at UCHS include agriculture, nursing, culinary arts and criminal justice.
In a county with as many prisons and other correctional institutions as Union and given the fact that the Department of Corrections is the largest employer in the county, it makes sense to have a course allowing students to get a taste of what is involved in a career in corrections and/or law enforcement. Such training can not only be of value for students deciding to pursue such occupations, it can also benefit those seeking careers as paramedics, private security, dispatchers, wildlife officers, lawyers and other officers of the court and military careers.
Union County School District Director of Personnel and Secondary Education Chris Mecusker looked at similar programs at other schools, then financed the program with grants to cover instructor’s salary and equipment, including a $45,000 simulator that allows students to experience real-work situations and interactions that might be encountered in the law enforcement career path. An added benefit is that the Union County Sheriff’s Office will also be able to use the simulator during non- school times as well. The program has proved to be very popular with students.
Last year, when the program was initiated, 150 students signed up, filling four classes. Interest has increased so that two more classes were added for the current school year, with enough prospects to fill at least two more next year.
The topics are varied and the program features many guest speakers.
Topics include the history of law enforcement and corrections, the judicial system, laws and amendments and court professionals, law enforcement, corrections, first aid and CPR and face-to-face communication skills. Also covered are defensive skills where students learn such skills as how to apply handcuffs and then how it feels to wear them and job interview skills if seeking a job using what they have learned.
Guest speakers and demonstrators are chosen based on their qualifications and on topic requests from students and have included the honorable Judge Mitchell Bishop (talking about court systems and his background), Danny Kline and Riley Rhoden from Game and Fish and the Department of Corrections, UC Asst. Director of Emergency Management Mark Hughes (discussing firefighting and paramedic skills), Michelle Green (a mental health professional), Detective Billy Townsend and Captain Lynn Williams with the Union County Sheriff’s Office, Matthew Elixson (concerning the juvenile justice system) and many others, with more to come.
Travis Rimes serves as the instructor for the classes. Rimes worked for 25 years in corrections, both as a correctional officer and with the inspector general’s office and served for four years with the UCSO as the school resource officer at LBMS. Now he teaches at UCHS and is a reserve deputy with the UCSO.
“I never thought I would end up teaching,” Rimes said. “but I really enjoy it. I enjoy making connections with the students and seeking the look on their faces when they finally understand something we are doing.”
Rimes is a Union County native and graduate of UCHS. He has coached softball and baseball at the high school before, so he is no stranger to working with young people. He is married to Stacey Rimes, UC School District Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability.
“This program has a lot to offer and we are not done with it yet,” Rimes said. “We are looking into being able to provide our students with entry-level certifications or qualifications or getting them credit for what they have already done if they go on with their law enforcement educations.”
Rimes spent months getting ready in advance of the first year of classes, converting the old carpentry shop into a training area. He did much of the work himself.
Programs such as this and the other CTE courses provide students with the basis to engage in professional careers even if they are not on a college-path. Many need to, or wish, to join the workforce immediately after graduation and CTE courses help make that possible.
