Fourth graders at Gypsum Elementary School interview community first responders
Eagle Chief of Police, Eagle County Sheriff's Office deputies, 911 dispatchers, detectives share their career stories with students
Zoe Goldstein/Vail Daily
Most people can’t pinpoint the moment they become heroes. But for a class activity, fourth graders at Gypsum Elementary School challenged some of Eagle County’s first responders to do just that.
Last week, the students interviewed Eagle County Sheriff’s Office deputies, members of the Eagle Police Department, 911 dispatchers, and an Avon police officer and detective to learn about their experiences.
The fourth graders heard from each first responder about the path that took them to their current career, from where they were born, to the event that catalyzed their career decision and who they have helped through their jobs.
On Tuesday, the four law enforcement speakers talked about separating the idea of a “bad person” from people who break the law.
“I truly believe that most people are good people. I think sometimes people just make mistakes, and sometimes they just need help getting on the right path,” said Carrie Buhlman, Eagle Police Chief, to the students.
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“90% of people that I talk to just made a bad decision because they’re going through a hard time and they start making bad choices,” said Craig Westering, Eagle Police Department Sergeant.
Students were led in their questions by their teachers, Lizbeth Resendez and Ella Thomas. Most students followed a worksheet provided by their teachers, which led to questions like “was there an event that happened that made (the speaker) want to have the job they do?” and “how have they changed people?”
But some students went off script, asking speakers about their pets and other follow up questions regarding the activities they do for fun and the reasons they find their work important.
Why the community heroes got into police work
“I knew I wanted to be a police officer really early,” Buhlman said. “I wanted to be a police officer because I wanted to be able to go to work every day and know that I might be able to help somebody.”
Westering told the students about his nontraditional path into police work. Westering moved to Eagle County as a youth pastor, took a job working at Beaver Creek Resort as a ticket scanner, and was encouraged into becoming a police officer after a friend noticed his passion for educating students in schools on skier safety.
20 years later, Westering said, educating people is still one of his favorite parts of the job.
“Being a pastor is a lot like being a police officer, because you’re seeing people going through hard times, whether it’s a victim that called us for help or somebody that made a bad choice, they’re trying to get out of their hard times,” Westering said. “I’ve had a lot of people that I’ve helped out over the years.”
Westering said got into law enforcement because he likes helping people, and he tries to treat people “as humans when they make mistakes.”
Learning about police work
Students were eager to meet Eagle County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Deputy Evan Jaramillo’s canine partner, Zane, a 92-pound German Shepherd. Unfortunately for the students, Zane was napping in the car, but Jaramillo fielded several questions about the dog, whose keen nose has led Jaramillo to find missing persons, make multiple drug busts and other arrests. As the students learned, while a hard worker when on-duty, the large dog is also quite cuddly when he is at home.
After hearing from Jaramillo, the students were eager to find out if any other law enforcement officers visiting their classroom were dog owners, as well.
Westering drew a parallel between police and parents. “How many people have been grounded before, or gotten their iPad taken away?” he said. “When you make a poor choice, which we all do in life, our parents love us and take care of us, and they’re kind of the cops in a way 鈥� They want you to make good decisions and be there for you, helping you lead your life and make good choices.”
Buhlman taught the students about the police department she oversees. Westering taught the students about the structure of the Eagle Police Department and the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office, including the difference between a police officer and a sheriff’s deputy.
Buhlman also spoke about her path to becoming Eagle’s first female chief of police, and her 17 years in police work. Drawing an imaginary image on the board, Buhlman told the students to imagine 10 people. “If we had 10 police officers’ pictures here, 10 of them, picture that, all of them but maybe two might be men. So there might be two women, more likely only one,” Buhlman said. “And even more, there are not very many women police officers (that are chiefs).”
“I knew that it didn’t matter to me if I was a male or a female 鈥� it didn’t matter if I was a boy or a girl 鈥� I knew that I could do this job. And I knew that because I had the heart to want to do this job,” Buhlman said. “Not everyone else believed that, but I had to work really hard to prove it.”
Learning how to make good choices
“Do you guys forgive people?” Westering asked. The class quickly responded that they did. “We like to forgive people, too,” he said.
“Do you guys talk about choices, making bad decisions and good decisions?” Buhlman asked. “Sometimes, police officers show up and have to say the exact same thing to people: You have a choice 鈥� It’s all a matter about providing choices and telling the people the good and the bad and how it’s going to affect them. We try to help as many people as we can. We try to change them for the good.”
“Think before you do it,” said one student.
Buhlman talked to the students about the kinds of choices they can think through before undertaking an action.
“We want to always think about what our words are going to do and what our actions are going to do, and how we can help maybe our classmates, our family, maybe our neighbors, or maybe it’s just a stranger that we don’t even know,” Buhlman said.
