Jessica Lopez, school resource officer at Mebane Police Department, was recently awarded “North Carolina Instructor of the Year” by L.E.A.D. (Law Enforcement Against Drugs & Violence), a nationwide nonprofit that works with communities to help students understand the dangers of drugs and violence. SRO Lopez was presented with the award at L.E.A.D.’s recent 10th annual 21st Century Drug and Violence Prevention Training Conference.
L.E.A.D. has a proven-effective, law enforcement-focused anti-drug, anti-violence curriculum for K–12 students in the U.S. The L.E.A.D. curriculum is taught over the course of a 10-week program to educate youth on how they can make smart decisions without the involvement of drugs or violence.
SRO Lopez teaches L.E.A.D. to three classes of fifth grade students, including one dual language class, at E.M. Yoder Elementary School, totaling 60 students. She says that the most rewarding aspect about teaching the program is getting to teach the kids skills they can use in their daily lives.
SRO Lopez adds that she became a police officer later in life, but if she had the opportunity to go through a program like L.E.A.D. when she was a student, she probably would have gone down that path earlier and been in law enforcement longer than she is now.
