Schools
PHOTOS: Mahwah Kids Meet FBI Chopper, National Guard
A daylong seminar at George Washington gave students a unique, hands-on opportunity to interact with FBI, military, and law enforcement personnel and equipment.
About a week before school is out for summer, students at George Washington Elementary School in Mahwah had an experience that the school’s principal called an “overwhelming success.”
Last week, the FBI, NJ Army National Guard, Bergen County Police Department, Bergen County Sheriff’s Department, Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Mahwah Police Department ran a daylong workshop at the school.
According to Principal Kevin Ulmer, the highlights of the seminar included an FBI helicopter landing, hands-on exploration of the chopper and military vehicles, a forensics workshop, interactive hidden camera demonstration, and fingerprinting lesson.
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The demonstrations contained, “some really valuable lessons for our students that I’m glad we were able to get in before the end of the [school] year,” Ulmer said. “It was a great way to bring role models into the building, and the kids really listened to their message.”
What the military and police personnel had to say, Ulmer continued, was in line with many of the school-wide lessons students have been learning this year, like the value of hard work and dedication, importance of respect, and an overall theme of superheroes.
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“It was really a big thing for our students to get to meet these real life superheroes,” Ulmer said. “It was a chance to see the value of hard work, and how our actions have impacts on others.”
The event, the principal said, was coordinated by a parent, Tom Hauck, a special agent with the FBI who has a Kindergartener at GW. Hauck, “was a huge help in setting up this event,” Ulmer said.
According to school officials, the experience the school’s students had was a unique one. The law enforcement group only puts together a few presentations like this for area schools each year.
“We were very fortunate to have them come to our school,” Ulmer said.
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