Gladstone School Resource Officer (SRO) Mallory Nelsen

GLADSTONE – A local police officer recently underwent training to help children stay safe, make good choices and communicate effectively.

Gladstone School Resource Officer (SRO) Mallory Nelsen recently participated and completed Child Abuse Prevention training through the Delta Regional Child Advocacy Center (DRCAC).

The training is intended to help Nelsen guide students in their physical and emotional safety.

“It’s a safety and prevention program,” Nelsen said.

“The bottom line would be to teach the kids from any grade level on how to keep themselves safe.”

She would provide information to students on various topics including bullying, online safety, and more.

“Anything that will keep them safe outside of the school as well. It’s just to help them, to guide them and give them more information,” Nelsen explained.

The information that Nelsen provided is split up into three groups: Kindergarten through fifth grade, sixth through eight and ninth through 12th

She plans to really dive into the information next school year as she completes her first year as the SRO.

The training also includes information on vaping and drinking, information Nelsen has since used in the classroom.

“I do a couple presentations each marking period for middle school health class. I do vaping and drinking and then I do bullying and I do take some of the information from here and implement that into my presentation,” she explained.

She said she plans to dive further into the information with the students, as there are a lot of tools they can use in their lives.

“It’s a great program with a lot of information that will be useful for the kids,” she said.

Nelsen added she believes the additional resources provided by the training will help keep students safe.

She added the resources are even more important as the school year is winding down.

“They’re going to have all summer, so if we give them more information on how to keep themselves, their family members, their friends, what have you safe outside of school, I think that’s a benefit for any kid,” Nelsen said.