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With the start of the school year, Bainbridge High School is offering career clusters in the criminal justice pathway.The classes are instructed by Resource Officer Leroy Akins and supervised by CTA Director Scott Morehouse. The school researched employment areas and found that law enforcement officers are actively needed.

 Morehouse stated, “Each year, we’re required to do what’s called a comprehensive local needs assessment, and what we do is look at Decatur COunty, Decatur COunty area, which is our surrounding counties and then the state of Georgia, and we start looking at where the employment needs are, in this case, when you take a look at law enforcement corrections,  they’re less than 50% manned across the state. There’s 138,000 people in the Decatur County area. That’s us plus our surrounding areas and 107,000 of those do not have a college degree. So, when we looked at that, we looked at pathways that will take students straight from high school into the job market. And if you look at the pay corrections are getting, it is a good pathway to take somebody directly from high school out to the job market.” 

 Students will tour facilities and speak with people with hands-on experience.

 For instance, Assistant Fire Chief Ryan Deen visited Bainbridge high school last Friday and taught students how and where to use a fire extinguisher by introducing the Bullex fire extinguisher trainer simulator. In addition, Deen taught students about the life of a fireman and the fire truck equipment, stating, “Hopefully, they’ll be able to use some of what they saw today in case there’s an emergency near them, with the school, or at home.” 

Once students complete the criminal justice pathway, they will take the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) which is a national certificate test. If passed, students will receive their Credential of Value Certificate which gives them access to start a law enforcement job after high school. Officer Leroy stated, “I’m very excited about this program that gives kids another opportunity. When they graduate high school, they go straight into corrections. According to law enforcement at the Public Central Sheriff Department, you have to be 21-years-old to carry a gun, but being 18, you can graduate now and go straight into the field working for the correction officer.” 

The courses introduce different subjects and objectives like safety demonstrations, constitutional law, fire equipment and safety, first aid, and careers. To learn more about the standards, visit the link: https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/CTAE/Pages/cluster-law.aspx.