One of the many new courses offered during Salisbury High School's Falcon Period (a block of time every six days devoted to studying, school work or elective courses) is a comprehensive class called "Intro to Emergency Services." The class consists of hands-on demonstrations, classroom discussions and tactics related to emergency services.

The class was created and is taught by School Resource Officer Richard Nothstein. He leads talks on the different aspects of police, fire, medical and rescue missions. Nothstein is an officer in the Salisbury Police Department.

"Teaching our students these skills is valuable for our future. They will be the ones performing these services in a few years," Nothstein said. "Many members of the class aspire to work in these fields and this is the first step toward their goals."

From donning bulletproof vests, to attempting basketball free throws wearing beer goggles, which impair vision in a similar way to alcohol, students are learning all facets of emergency services each class.

"I really enjoyed the K-9 demonstration; it was cool to see a police dog up close," junior Mackenzie Stewart said. "And I learned a lot about the training police dogs go through."

Most recently, Nothstein showed students how police bag and tag evidence, as well as photograph and sketch the crime scene, dust for prints and keep a crime scene safe from contamination. Nothstein showed actual police tools and demonstrated proper use of fingerprinting equipment.

"I try and get all the kids who are interested in trying something to have a shot at it," Nothstein said.

Students saw pictures of fingerprint types, plaster casts of shoes and police tags.

Nothstein told the students it can take eight to 12 months to get a piece of evidence returned after testing is done at the state lab. This, and other time consuming processes, can make police work very difficult, but Nothstein explained the need for these procedures.

The curriculum for the remainder of the school year includes a visit from paramedics, demonstrations by firefighters and workshops with guest speakers. The students are looking forward to these events and were active in deciding the curriculum from the beginning.

"This class is all about what the kids want to learn in the field of emergency services," Nothstein said. "If they're really excited about a particular topic, then we'll cover that topic in a way they'll enjoy. If one single student learned something and had a fun time, maybe even decided on a career in the field then the class served it's purpose."