CHS students put training on display during emergency exercise

By Randy Bell

Candace Dixon will have to wait another four years to live her dream of becoming a police officer. But, at Clinton High School (CHS) on April 22, she got a taste of what it might be like during an emergency simulation organized by the school’s Law and Public Safety program – which included an explosion and a fire near the football field.

“I’ve always wanted to make an impact on someone’s life,” the CHS junior said as she sat in a classroom following the exercise. “Law enforcement has always been my first choice for a career path.”

Dixon, who is 17, spent her first year in Law and Public Safety focusing on police work and the military. This year, she’s been learning about firefighting and emergency services, and she said the exercise showed her how to stay calm when unexpected events are happening. According to Dixon, “Sometimes, it’s good to have hard challenges thrown at you, because it forces growth that easy situations never will.” She participated in the exercise as a firefighter.

Former Clinton Police Officer Al Kimbrell teaches the law enforcement-military component of the curriculum. He said the exercise scenario was an explosion at a local market, with Law and Public Safety students playing the role of first responders dealing with simulated casualties (Health Sciences students with painted-on injuries) and general chaos (Theater students providing the drama).

Kimbrell said, “My students had to call for help and then start interviewing people [asking] ‘Hey, what did you see?’”

He said the goal was to make the exercise as realistic as possible.

“I try to put [students] into the shoes of a police officer. I think it went well. It’s the fourth year we’ve done it, and every time it’s like, ‘How do we work this for the students to get more out of it?’”

Several public safety agencies sent personnel to the exercise, including the Clinton Police and Fire Departments, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) and the Capitol Police.

Just as Dixon has to wait until she turns 21 to become a police officer, Kimbrell said the impact of the Law and Public Safety program may not been seen right away, even after the students get their high school diplomas – but he has several success stories to share.

“I’ve had several [students] that have joined the military,” said Kimbrell. “I’ve got one who’s looking to apply as a fireman in Clinton right now. I’ve got a student at Mississippi State who wants to go to law school and the FBI. I’ve had one student who has been a dispatcher in the past. One former student who graduated in 2023 now works on an ambulance while she’s at Mississippi College.”

He admits, though, that the path toward a career in law enforcement can be longer.

“I didn’t start [as a police officer] until I was 25.”

If nothing else, the students who go through the Law and Public Safety program develop an appreciation for first responders.

“They gain an understanding of what we do,” Kimbrell said, “how we do things and why we look at things the way we do.”

And for the youngsters in the other classes who took part in the simulation, they learned something about protecting themselves in the real world, knowledge that Kimbrell’s students already had. Once the activities were wrapped up, he was asked to visit several classrooms to explain what students should do if they’re ever involved in an actual emergency, whether it’s in a public place or a work environment. For those kids, he said, having fun participating in the exercise was just the beginning.

“There’s a lesson coming after all of this.”