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Dawson School provides training sites for Boulder County Sheriff's Office

Dawson School is fortunate to have a sizable campus, and during the summer months when school is not in session it is home to a myriad of programs: numerous summer camps, as well as special programs such as those organized with the I Have a Dream Foundation of Boulder County, and the Dawson Summer Initiative program for high-achieving public middle school students.

Periodically this summer, however, it has also been home to a marked influx of law enforcement officers as the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office has been using Dawson’s campus and buildings for a series of training exercises with its officers.

According to Sergeant Jason Oehlkers of the Sheriff’s Office Operations Division, the visits are an element of the department’s annual in-service program, part of its state-required training. “Think of it like continuing education,” he said.

Officers visit campus on their day off to train as a follow-up to classroom instruction they’ve received. So far, a group of up to 18 ‘students’ and 12 instructors and role-players have been at Dawson five times, enacting different scenarios.

Each time, prominent signage at Dawson’s entrance and around campus alerts other visitors to the school of the group’s activities; they have used areas ranging from school buses to a campus building currently not in use. Training includes having officers practice small unit tactics and de-escalation, as well as scenarios such as a traffic stop where they encounter an ambush, or an active shooter at a school,

This summer’s training sessions are the first time the group has used Dawson’s campus. Previously, the school has hosted K9 officers and their handlers both for their own law enforcement training, and as guests to Upper School science classes.

 

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