CATS Academy is introduced to El Dorado students
PRIDE Youth Programs, the El Dorado Police Department and several community organizations worked together to host the inaugural CATS Academy, a weeklong program for students entering the fifth grade.
The program is modeled after Texarkana’s PRIDE Academy, PRIDE executive director Deb Crawford said.
Not to be confused with the peerto-peer drug prevention and education organization based at El Dorado High School, in Texarkana’s case, PRIDE means Personal Responsibility in Daily Efforts. Texarkana’s initiative was initially created through Texarkana, Arkansas Police Department Cpl. Kristi Bennett’s graduate school research.
While pursuing a master’s in public administration at Southern Arkansas University, she was assigned a professional project to complete. She said that since she was working in law enforcement, she thought starting a program like PRIDE Academy was a good idea.
“We are trying to establish a unique bond between police officers and students at College Hill Middle School. Often, when kids come into contact with police, it’s in a negative light … We think that we can help change that attitude and help give these kids a responsible role model to look up to,” Bennett said in a 2013 Texarkana Gazette report.
TAPD’s juvenile crimes unit and the school district continued to track the first group’s behavior and academic achievement, she said. The results have shown a 56 percent decrease in school behavioral
infractions, according to a Texarkana Gazette report.
“Since it started six years ago, it has been very successful (and) juvenile crime has gone down 38 percent,” Bennett said.
After attending the program last August, El Dorado Police Department Community Liaison Sgt. Chris Lutman, School Resource Officer Gerid Arwin and PRIDE’s Youth Programs coordinator Jesse Fox thought they “could do this.”
They started to plan CATS Academy that same month and coordinated with each of the El Dorado elementary school counselors “to identify those who would probably benefit from this and reached out to them in a very personal way,” Lutman said. Washington Middle School counselor Megan Rainwater said she began lending a helping hand last September.
“We don’t want the officers with their blinders on, who just write tickets and then that’s it … We should also, going through the course of our duties, be open minded and keep our eyes open for who needs some love — some tough love in many cases,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to help these kids become better, productive members of society and build those relationships … with a lot of activities.”
Arwin said the CATS Academy, cleverly named after the El Dorado School District’s Wildcat mascot, is the police department’s “step in that direction.”
CATS is an acronym for Committed Ambitious Trustworthy Student. During a fiveday period, upcoming fifth-graders participated in interactive workshops covering drug and alcohol prevention, community involvement, personal hygiene and law enforcement-community relations.
“One of the classes is involved with this group called Oasis and they’re an equine therapy and learning group out of San Antonio. I actually went to Texarkana’s PRIDE Academy and watched. The kids absolutely loved it … Each kid will get to handle the horses and will be able to learn the character qualities through the activity of training horses,” Lutman said. “We’ll have prescription drug abuse classes because fifth grade’s not too early and we’ll have a hygiene class.”
In addition to the EPD, an Echo Training Team representing several U.S. cities came to El Dorado to assist, he said. Fox spearheads Echo and facilitates leadership, team building and drug education training sessions. Echo works closely with PRIDE Youth Program organizations across the country, according to its website.
"Ten trainers from about six states … facilitate the programming so the officers have the opportunity to get oneon-one with the students and have fun,” Fox said. “We start on the first day by really working to build relationships between the officers and students (so) that they can have fun. They’re going to get goofy. They’re going to get silly. That way, when it comes to the more serious stuff they have a foundation.”
The school district also has incorporated its mission into its elementary school instruction, Lutman said. Because of the nature it its programming, the SHARE Foundation awarded CATS Academy with a generous grant and the program received donations from Walmart.
“Actually, the SHARE Foundation did kind of a community assessment and this is one of the needs that has been identified in the community. They’re trying to be proactive in this because as you’ve read in the paper or seen on the news, the violence issue is becoming a huge problem in a lot of places in this state and all over the place,” Crawford said. “All of their focus based on this assessment is to reduce the risk of that and get these young people headed in the right direction.”
CATS Academy participants left with the mantra that said, “I will work hard to finish what I start. I am determined to do great things. My teachers and peers can depend on me. I am smart by choice, not by chance.”
“The more we do it, the better it’s going to get, the more steam it’ll pick up, the more word will get out. We’re hoping to have more kids,” Arwin said. “We were looking to have about 100.”
CATS Academy graduates washed cars to raise money for the Agape House, collected non-perishable food items for the school district’s food pantry and did light maintenance projects around Washington Middle School. Lutman said mentors will be assigned to the students they lead during the program and will follow their progress until graduation.
“There have been studies done, completed that have shown that there’s a direct correlation between incarceration rates and learning levels at that grade level … It’s a one-week class, but it doesn’t stop there. The goal is to have the mentoring as they go through each grade level, accountability,” he said.
The PRIDE Academy coordinator offered advice to the EPD, especially a 3:25 officer-student ratio. When EPD officers attended the Texarkana program last year, Bennett said she’d “help in any way” she can.
“To ensure success, there should be at least nine dedicated officers and it starts with the police chief. He’s the head. It’s not just about one week in the summer … It takes an after-care component and commitment until they reach adulthood,” Bennett said.