Strongsville Police personnel underwent Firearms Training Simulator (FATS) training at its police firing range. The computer program can replicate hundreds of scenarios displayed on a large screen. Police officers use very realistic firearms loaded with computer chips instead of ammunition.

You can read about how police utilize the simulator to become better decision makers in the pages of this edition of The Strongsville Post.

That really is the key. The simulator is not intended to make anyone a better shot. That’s what the range is for throughout the year. The goal of FATS is to make each and every individual that wears the uniform a better decision maker for situations in the field none of us hope they encounter.

I was presented with two different situations during my time on the simulator. One was a young female alone in a barren and open field holding what appeared to be a firearm with a red tip.

I distinctly gave loud and repeated verbal commands for the female to drop the gun. She replied it was only a toy for game play. It turned out that was exactly the case, however, I could not be sure until she dropped the gun. At one point her ‘toy’ gun was pointed directly at me. I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger.

If what this female had was, in fact, a real gun I was probably not coming home that evening. Yes, the correct decision might have been to disarm this girl by killing her.

The second scenario was in an office setting with a gunman on the loose. As I walked the halls there were two officers down. Decision one was to keep quiet, as to not bring attention to myself. Even though there were injured officers this was probably the right decision.

As I turned the corner I noticed a man with a gun entering an office and shooting. I shot and the gunman opened fire.

As I said, this was about decision making and not so much accuracy. However, I was a bit north of Billy Crystal in the movie ‘Analyze This.’

When two hit men attack Paul Vitti (Robert Deniro) and Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) in a junkyard Ben grabs Paul’s gun and blindly shoots back. He straightens up and sees two dead men. Sobel asks mobster Jelly (Joseph Viterelli) “Jelly” Did I do that?” to which Jelly replies “No, Doc. That one’s mine. You got the ‘72 Chevy, and the Amana side-by-side refrigerator-freezer.”

OK, it wasn’t quite that bad. I did hit the gunman a couple of times with most of my shots hitting the floor. Maybe I got him on the ricochet?

The point is police officers have to make split-second decisions, most of which would have me scared stiff. The simulator is just that, a video game of sorts that mimics reality.

What would you or I do in a real life situation? I’m glad I don’t have to find out and I am equally glad there are brave men and women who make those life and death decisions.

Power of the Pen

Sts. Joseph and John School students on the seventh- and eighth-grade Power of the Pen teams competed at the District Writing Tournament in Cuyahoga Heights on Feb. 4. The seventh grade team finished third out of 18 teams. Benny Frostino earned a rare perfect score and was the No. 1 writer of all seventh grade competitors. He received a standing ovation for his work.

BPA regionals

Polaris Business Professional & Office Technology students recently competed in the Business Professionals of America (BPA) regional competition. BPA is the leading Career Technical Student Organization for students pursuing careers in Business Management, Information Technology (IT), Office Administration and other related career fields. BPA has more than 43,000 members in over 2,300 chapters in 23 states. The Ohio chapter boasts 7,700 members in 19 regions. One-hundred seventy-one students from area schools took part in this year’s regional competition at Polaris. The purpose of these events is to give students a platform to demonstrate the skills they have mastered in their career-technical training programs. In all, 26 Polaris students will compete at the state level in Columbus on March 16-17, 2017.

Strongsville students included Alex Antonopoulos (jr., second, payroll accounting), Bachar el Halabi (sr., third, payroll accounting), Jared Hader (sr., first, intermediate word processing and third, fundamental spreadsheet applications), Jada Moore (sr., third, advanced word processing and second, advanced office systems and procedures), Khadar Soussou (sr., second, entrepreneurship) and Calvin Renaud (sr., first, human resource management).

Professor Harper

Sara Harper, a 2008 graduate of Strongsville High School, received her Doctor of Philosophy in exercise science from Kent State University. The commencement for advanced degrees was held Dec. 16, 2016. She is currently working as a visiting assistant professor at Tiffin University.