One of the new classes taking the school by storm offered a new take on how law enforcement is taught in the classroom. The Principles of Law class taught by Mr. Roy Burns allowed students better understand the world of law enforcement and criminal justice.

While this was the first year the class was taught, the number of students signed up to take Principles of Law next year almost doubled the size of the current two classes. For the students taking Principles of Law this year, they will have the opportunity to take Law I next year and Law II the year after that.

“This class gets me out of bed,” freshman Stephen Fischer said.

Students taking the Principles of Law class participated in tactical where they get to put on their duty belts equipped with a fake gun, handcuffs, and a flashlight once or twice every week, but they were eager to sign up for Law I with the promise of doing tactical almost every day and learning more of how law enforcement is trained in stressful situations.

In addition to tactical, students watched bodycam videos of actual police officers going into situations and handling them with precaution. Other days, they learned about various topics including corrections, courts, fire safety, ethics and law enforcement.

“It’s a great class and I learn a lot of cool things from it,” freshman Shelby Cooley said.

Students in the class said they enjoyed being put in stressful situations where they were forced to make a choice on how they would handle a situation as serious as a hostage situation and as laid back as having to have a man leave an area with no force required.

“Mr. Burns likes to get our heart racing,” freshman Mason McNeil said. “Everyday offers another stressful situation that gets thrown at us.”

Mr. Burns previously taught the class in Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD, but this was the first year he took students to competition. The 23 students attended the TPSA Competition in Granbury on Jan 18-19 but none advanced to state. Nevertheless, everyone was still very happy on the outcome of the event. Which included the Building search team getting 4th, the team included Freshmen Stephen Fischer, Mason McNeil and Jackson Cockerham and Sophomore Sonny Schmidt. Fallon Frank placed 4th in Inmate Processing  Most of the students at the competition were either juniors or seniors, so for the freshman and sophmores it was more than enough that they did were able to go.

“Although we didn’t win, I still had a great time competing with my friends,” freshman Mason McNeil said.

In addition to classroom activities and the competition, the class also had guest speakers come in from time to time including a DEA officer, an officer from Fort Worth and a lawyer from Dallas.

“With all of the opportunities, the class helps me get on the right path for my career,” freshman Endria Williams said.