Vernon Hills High School has started off its year with the introduction of new clubs to the Cougar family. One of those being the Law Enforcement Club; the group consists of students interested in law enforcement, forensic science, and criminal law.

The club is directed by Kurt Erickson and Officer Dan Mead who both have many future plans to incorporate into the clubs meetings. Erickson explained how the goal of the Law Enforcement Club is to not only expose students to different careers within the legal field but also to create a better sense of community within the VHHS family.

“I think the goal would be to kind of give students an awareness of like the different opportunities in law enforcement that they could have or could pursue post high school and also… hopefully we can get it to the point where we start doing more things in the community and improving the community relations too,” said Erickson.

Amy Rupsis (12), an active member of the club, describes her thoughts on the importance behind the Law Enforcement Club.

 “Since like a lot of people joining this club might have an interest in this in the future it’s good to give everyone a new background and a new understanding of issues and topics regarding the career” Rupsis.

Erickson and Mead hope to expand such a community through different club events that range from meeting K-9 dog units to meeting the county coroner.

 “Every meeting is something new. We bring in an aspect of either law enforcement or criminal justice” said Rupsis.

With these meetings, Erickson hopes students will find a new interest within these career fields or simply learn something new. 

“Another big one [event] we have scheduled is females in law enforcement. We’ve also had the county coroner come in and give a presentation. We have a whole bunch of different kinds of areas I think a lot of people don’t typically think of like law enforcement,” said Erickson.

Law Enforcement Club’s first club meeting will be September 13, and they will be holding a special presentation from the Lake County SWAT Team. The meetings last for about an hour, and students are able to ask questions, as well as interact with the presenters.

Anett Vaysberg and Lexi Reinstein also contributed to this report.