Youth Services Division

Middle School

The Middle School T.E.A.M. program was introduced in the fall of 2002 and is currently being taught Middle School to hundreds of students. The middle schools under this program use the Middle School Liaison Officer to help out during special events, student discipline, and school safety issues. The administrators and support staff at the Middle Schools consider it an asset to know a Police Officer personally, to liaison police related problems. The intervention of this program is important to the students as they enter their teenage years.

Detective Bryan Rupard is assigned to implement the Middle School Program.
 

What is TEAM?

In March 1998, the Michigan Department of State Police was awarded a federal block grant to develop a School Liaison Officer Program that would specifically address crime prevention. The goal of developing this program is to unite educator, students, and law enforcement to play an integral part in preventing crime. At a time of decreasing resources for police, engaging the community and obtaining support from school-aged residents in the area of crime prevention will make communities safer and reduce fear.

During the program planning and implementation phase, a team of experienced police and public and private school curriculum experts from across the state, began writing the curriculum in March 1998. This program is designed to be taught by a uniformed Police Officer, in a classroom to supplement regular classroom instruction. This curriculum is appropriate for public, private or charter schools at elementary, middle or high school levels. Michigan Model’s comprehensive health curriculum was used as a basic foundation, with law enforcement developing an educational approach that focused on protecting children from becoming victims of crime.

Teaching, Education, And Mentoring (TEAM) became the concept and attitude of this curriculum. The philosophy is that while working together as a team we could create a school-based, law related educational program designed to promote responsible citizenship and positive character traits among students. By providing students with a thorough understanding of Michigan laws and the consequences for unlawful behavior, attitudes and behaviors may be influenced and crime would not prosper. The program’s teaching technique is not by fear or intimidation.