Interview with Officer Gerking

By Tribal News Writers

For Puyallup Tribal News
Published on: August 21, 2008

Chef Leschi Schools has had the benefit of having the Puyallup Tribal Police department provide a school resource officer (SRO) for the school. Officer Gerking makes a difference in the lives of our children and has dedicated his time and energy in developing and surpassing the G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance and Training) program. He has organized and directed a camp for students to attend and work on healthy decisions. It is a chance for the students to spend time with nature and to build healthy relationship with their peers.

    Officer Gerking was asked some questions about his program and how he became an officer.

1.    Describe what you had to do to become an officer and a G.R.E.A.T. officer. (How long did it take)? It takes about eight months from the time you are hired until you are an officer on your own. Roughly four months in the academy in New Mexico. Then you are with a field training officer and then you have a two-week Washington state equivalency.

To become a G.R.E.A.T. instructor you have a two-week training where you learn classroom management and also learn about the G.R.E.A.T. program.

2.    Why did you want to become an officer? To give back to the community in a positive way.

3.    Why do you enjoy your job? I enjoy my job because I get to interact with the community in a positive way and I can go home everyday knowing that I was able to help someone.

4.    How does the G.R.E.A.T. program help today’s youth? The classroom part in which I teach the 6th-grade for 12 weeks and the 4th-grade for six weeks is really a life skills class that helps today’s youth with a lot of the problems they are facing. The program also helps the kids see a police officer in a different manner than what they may have seen in the past (someone coming in to teach and help them vs. someone that they see when they are in trouble). It builds a relationship with kids so when they see other officers they think about police in a positive way.

Our G.R.E.A.T. program also offers a summer program and weekends where students can spend some time just being kids in a safe environment. This also gives teachers who volunteer to get to know the students in a different setting. This makes their jobs easier because the kids just might think about the positive interaction they had when the teacher assigns homework.

5.    Do you feel the community has a gang problem? All communities have a gang problem, whether they are in your neighborhood or not. It takes a lot of resources and money to combat the gang issues which affects everyone.

What are three things people can do to help this problem?

 1. Make sure that at a young age your kids are making a connection at home, school and within the community. Keep this up throughout their teenage years.

2. Know who your kids are hanging out with, what they are doing, and where your kids are meeting their friends and the parents.

3. Let it be known that gang related behavior is not OK and educate yourself about the behaviors.

6.    Why do you feel children join gangs? Children join gangs for a lot of reasons.Some of the main reasons are they think it is cool, disconnection from home or school, it’s something that fills their time, they live in a gang-claimed neighborhood and some are born into it and don’t know any better.

7.    How does our G.R.E.A.T. program differ from others? To start out with a lot of the instructors go from school to school and just teach the classes. At our school I teach the classes and then I am there to reinforce what is taught in the classroom. Our program has a lot of different things that we do that others don’t. During high school/middle school lunch the kids from the G.R.E.A.T. program this past year ran the student store two days a week. We have the weekend escapes that had kids spending weekends at camp. A summer program that has kids doing anything from a day camp to staying for three weeks depending on age and which camp they were in. We also have had an after-school program in the past for middle/school high school.

8.    What are some of the opportunities the G.R.E.A.T. program gives to our students? A chance to be around a police officer and many other people in a positive setting.

They can learn about business when they help with the student store. They can be counselors at summer camp and for some of the kids in the program it is the first job that they ever had. From time to time they can put away all the worries they have at school and home and just be a kid at camp.

9.    How is the G.R.E.A.T. program funded and by whom? The program is funded by the Puyallup Tribe. I would also like to note that other entities also donate. Kwawachee/Helping Hands donates time, about 300 hours in the last six months, and a counselor for the summer program the last three years.

Chief Leschi Schools donate transporta-tion for our weekend escapes, drinking water for our camps and a lot of other items to make camp run smooth. Chief Leschi employees donated time last year – about 1,200 hours. Grandview daycare also donated time to teach kids at camp. Summer camp counselors donated 3,360 hours of time. Construction crews and G.R.E.A.T. program parents donated time and tools preparing the cabins and property on five different weekends. Emerald Queen Casino donated all the plates, cups, forks etc. They also donated lunch for all the campers every Friday. This shows when an entire community gets together a lot of good can come out of it.

A big thank you to Officer Gerking for all you do!

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