By MaKalie Farmer

            Students participated in the northwest regional TPSA, Texas Public Service Association, competition and brought home several awards. 

 “We do a lot of police categories,” Chloe Ramirez said. “Some of our competition categories are building search, SWAT team, cell extraction and processing, and trials.”

On February 15, 2020 the TPSA team competed in regionals. There are 27 public service events including interviews, marketing, firefighting, law enforcement, corrections, courts, and forensic science. Out of 27 events, TPSA placed in 9.

“There are six regions in TPSA,” Teacher Les Bruce said. “We are in the northwest region, which means we compete against nine other high schools in our region.”

Abilene High took 23 students to competition and 12 students were able to advance to state.

“We go into the competition room and they give us a situation to react to,” Abby Olivo said. “We have to use our skills to assess the situation correctly.”

In “Disturbance Call”, Javier Zertuche and Jon Dam placed 1st. Keirstyn Hall, Maya Huerta, and Abby Olivo placed 1st in “Crash Investigation”. In “Foot Pursuit”, Iemaydur Grant placed 1st. Javier Zertuche, Jonathan Ortiz, Sean Sedberry, and Elijsha Hernandez placed 1st in “Building Search”. In “Police Job Interview”, Cameron Mitchell placed 1st. Brazos Lewis placed 1st in “Opening statement” and 2nd in “Closing Argument”. Chloe Ramirez placed 2nd in “Opening Statement” and 3rd in “Closing Argument”.

“Law enforcement is definitely a future i could have,” Jon Dam said. “TPSA has really helped me find my passion in it.”

All students who are a part of a criminal justice class have the option of auditioning for a TPSA team. TPSA gives students a taste of what it would be like in their preferred pubic service category, whether it be police, law, fire, or interviews.

“We went and put our best efforts into it,” Chloe said. “Coming out of the room and feeling like ‘dang i really just did that’ was an amazing feeling.”

The 12 students who placed in events will be going to Galveston on April 26-28 to compete in state competition.

  “We traditionally do very well at regionals and state,” Mr.Bruce said. “I wouldn’t think this year will be any different, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”