The free, seven-week program emphasizes the importance of staying safe on the internet and in the community, the threat of drugs, practicing gun safety and more. The students met for an hour every Thursday starting in about mid-October, Nelsen said.

“Each lesson had, kind of, ideas to go off of,” Nelsen said. “But not only has the time changed but every area is different as well. I just try to make it more realistic for the kids so that they may (relate) to the information better.”

Nelsen previously attended a week-long training course called TEAM — Teaching, Educating and Mentoring — provided by Michigan State Police while she worked for a different department, which is where she learned of the program and received lesson plans and supplies for her students.

“I had done it in a smaller setting at a previous department, but this is the first time I had done it with this large of a group,” she said.

Fifth-grade students at Jones Elementary in Gladstone recently completed a seven-week Safety Skills Program led by School Resource Officer Mallory Nelsen. (Contributed photo)

Nelsen tried to have a guest speaker at every lesson. They included Gladstone Public Safety Officer Sam Pouliot, Michigan State Computer Crimes, Delta County Search and Rescue, D&D Dog Dynamics President and Head Trainer Sammi Grzybowski and Michigan Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Mike Hammill.

Delta County Search and Rescue, for example, provided advice on staying safe if lost in the woods, among other topics. Hammill incorporated hunter safety into Nelsen’s lesson on gun safety.

“I always tell them my favorite (lesson) was letting somebody know that you’re leaving the house and letting somebody know that you got to your destination, so if something were to happen in between, it’d be a shorter amount of time that we would be contacted,” Nelsen said.

At the end, she created certificates for each Jones Elementary student who completed the program.

While the start date is yet to be determined, Nelsen does plan to host the program again considering the success and positive feedback she received from teachers, students and parents after the first round.

School Resource Officer Mallory Nelsen from Gladstone Public Safety, left, stands with her son, Owen Nelsen, alongside Michigan Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Mike Hammill and his daughter, Hadley Hammill. Nelsen hosted the first Safety Skills Program that recently concluded at Jones Elementary in Gladstone. (Contributed photo)

“They all loved it. They were bummed that the program was over,” Nelsen said. “(Parents) were thankful for the program and it brought up conversations at home — like their kid was talking about it at home and things they had learned.”

She added, “I’ll definitely do this fifth-grade program again. The question is whether or not I’m going to do another grade level.”

Several factors will be weighed before making that decision, such as the attention spans of different ages.

“The big thing that I told the kids is my job as a police officer is to keep them safe, keep the community safe. But my job as a school resource officer is to teach them how to keep themselves safe,” Nelsen said. “If they were to take anything away from this – from now until they’re an adult – if they’re in a situation where they can say to themselves, ‘You know what, I remember doing this and I can keep myself safe in this situation by doing this,’ that’s really what I want from the program.”