By Chad Klassen

Students eyes opened at RCMP Police Academy after seeing crash scene

Mar 20, 2018 | 5:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — While most students are enjoying a bit of freedom outside of school during spring break, 19 other kids in School District 73 are at boot camp — actually, the RCMP Police Academy, now in its eighth year in operation.

Some of the past graduates have moved on and are pursuing a career in policing. On Tuesday, Kamloops Fire Rescue, along with the B.C. Ambulance Service, gave the high school students a demonstration on what it would be like to have to extracate patients at an accident scene. 

“I’m actually really glad I did get to see this because everybody has this idea about what happens in emergency situations because of what the media’s like, what’s on TV,” said Quesnel student Abby Fisher. “I would like to be an ERT medic, so an emergency response team medic, and it kind of opened up a door and let me see what a real situation would be like.”

Firefighters took the car apart piece by piece, trying to give paramedics the clearest path to the patients. Carter Barbosa from Quesnel was one of the two volunteer patients in the vehicle and said the experience was unique.  

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“It was pretty cool,” said Barbosa. “All I heard was a lot of loud bangs and cracks and smashing sounds, and I was kind of scared a little. But then I felt perfectly safe, though, at the same time because I knew they are professionals.”

The students are staying at Brock Middle School until their graduation on Thursday, as if they’re at Depot in regina. 

“They have been learning about tactics, about the dog units, about specialized units, about the Criminal Codes of Canada, powers of arrest, traffic,” said district principal of trades and transitions Sheryl Lindquist. “There’ll be a dispatch portion where they simulate. You have a dispatcher here and they simulate what it’s like for that individual.”

The 19 students, including seven girls, is down from 26 a year ago. But they’ve all been having a great time, despite giving up most of their one-week spring break. 

“It’s been really cool. This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” said Barbosa. “You don’t do this on a normal day, the police dog doing its thing, learning how to take down criminals and stuff. It’s kind of unique.”