Students attend Washington County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office ‘CHAMP Camp’

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Students attended the Washington County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office’s (WCSO) “CHAMP Camp” on Tuesday.

School resource officers (SRO) hosted the second annual camp which features K9s, SWAT, criminal investigations, defensive driving and gun safety.

“Kids are very inquisitive,” WCSO SRO Supervisor and camp organizer Lt. Kevin Sanders said. “They’re always asking questions about an officer’s job, what they do on a daily basis. So we’ve devised a camp where we have the different aspects of our job.”

Forty middle school students from Johnson City and Washington County, Tennessee attended the camp at the Appalachian Fairgrounds.

Sanders said the camp gives students the chance to be around officers and see what they do firsthand.

“They’ve got hundreds of questions, but this is a chance for them to actually put hands on things and be around, you know, real officers,” Sanders said. “And they can explain what they do on a daily basis and they can see it firsthand.”

The camp featured a new addition for its second year: marksmanship.

“One of the additions we added this year was the marksmanship,” Sanders said. “So obviously we’re not going to have them shooting a lot of ammo out here, but our department does have airsoft weapons that we use and training scenarios, things like that. It’s a safe means of teaching gun safety and [letting] them get their hands on it and seeing what it’s like. Accuracy-wise, you know, shoot little targets and so it’s good for them.”

The WCSO’s “CHAMP Camp” stands for commitment, honesty, accountable, mentor and positive.

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