ABOVE: Deputy Chris Gerhardt, a School Resource Officer at Granada-Huntley-East Chain Schol is teaching a new introduction to criminal justice class this year.
GRANADA– This school year Granada-Huntley-East Chain (GHEC) is offering a new introduction to criminal justice course to students, which is being taught by Deputy Chris Gerhardt of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, who is also GHEC’s School Resource Officer (SRO).
The class results in both elective credit for students, and also college credit as it’s a PSEO (Postsecondary Enrollment Option) class.
Superintendent Doug Storbeck explained that the district’s strategic plan includes a goal of adding as many elective classes as possible in order to provide ample opportunities for students. He said that the school’s former principal, Taylor Topinka, had initiated a class like this getting started.
“Mr.Topinka was looking at options. We like to look at our staff and see all of the possibilities they bring to the table and one of them was Deputy Gerhardt. Obviously he’s in law enforcement but also has the unique capability of being very good at public speaking and making connections with students and we felt it was a good opportunity to look into the possibility of a criminal justice class,” Storbeck said.
Gerhardt just started his fifth year as SRO at GHEC. He said that the conversation with Topinka started a few years ago and after looking more into it, Gerhardt said if he was going to teach a class, he wanted it to count as PSEO as it would further benefit students.
“We reached out to a few universities and settled with Minnesota State University out of Mankato, which is providing the curriculum and also accredited me through Experience in Education,” Gerhardt said.
The class goes over the four main pillars of the criminal justice system: law enforcement, courts, corrections and parole/probation.
“The goal of the book is to teach how different agencies work together toward public safety and public health,” Gerhardt said. “My goal with the class is… critical thought and how can the students work together to critically think and problem solve and it just happens to be with criminal justice content.”
Em Engelking and Tristen Werner are both seniors taking the class and like that it provides opportunity for good conversations. Engelking said she enjoys having initial conversations about a matter and forming an opinion before collecting more information.
“Then we talk about what we’re learning and what we thought and how it affects different people. We talk about ethnicity, race, age and it all goes into the criminal justice stuff as well,” she said.
Gerhardt added that during each class session they have an ethical or policy issue that they do critical thinking on.
“It’s an open conversation among the seven students in the class and I think it really helps them understand their own bias and stereotypes and prejudice and allows them to see the world in a different viewpoint and how some people are treated different in the criminal justice system in the United States, as well as other justice systems in other countries,” Gerhardt said.
The class also allows Gerhardt to bring in several guest speakers. So far a state patrolman has come in but a county attorney, jail administrator and outreach speaker will also come in over the course of the semester.
The president of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), Rudy Perez, said that having SROs teach classes is actually encouraged, whether it’s a criminal justice class, narcotics class, active shooter class or digital citizenship.
“It’s probably one of the most important community engagement conversations because it’s not in a time and place where it’s an urgency of enforcement, but it’s more of an education, early prevention, early intervention,” Perez said.
He said that the benefit of having an SRO teach a class in part has to do with the uniform piece. He said that when a person in a uniform takes the time to engage in the conversation of non-enforcement, it allows students to open up and ask questions in a non-confrontational environment and thus makes an impact.
“Chris is probably one of the best out there in the country. I travel all over the country and Chris’s attitude and heart, I wish I could have millions of SROs that are just like Chris because he’s all about early prevention and intervention. Nine-five percent of his work is creating long-term trust and relationships with student, staff and the community. He’s a phenomenal school resource officer,” Perez said.
Andy Walden, the school’s principal, said that they would like to see this program grow.
“We think it provides students a great opportunity and a potential career pathway. Chris has done a nice job gaining interest within the student body and we’re lucky to have him here and the students are lucky to have him here, too,” Walden said.
He said that they want to provide students the opportunity to take as many electives as possible and to follow this pathway if they’re interested.
Next semester, Gerhardt said he would like to teach a careers in criminal justice course through MSU and pointed out that there are far more career paths than just law enforcement, including prohibition, courts, attorneys, judges, administrators, records and evidence.
Overall, Gerhardt is excited for the opportunity to develop trusting and positive relationships with students, as well as bridge the gap between criminal justice agencies and the general public.
“Being a concurrent high school/PSEO instructor is one more of those opportunities I hope also develops great public leaders who serve our communities in those criminal justice roles for decades to come,” he said.
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