Academy for aspiring lawyers, law enforcement officers coming to Pueblo West High
A new academy at Pueblo West High School is designed to train future lawyers, politicians, law enforcement and more.
The school's Law and Justice Academy will begin offering courses in fall 2023. Through completion of the academy's elective coursework, students will be able to earn more than 30 credits toward a criminal justice associate's degree from Pueblo Community College and also transfer their credits to a four-year institution following graduation.
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The academy will offer two pathways — one for law enforcement and one for legal and judicial studies. The law enforcement pathway will train aspiring sheriff's deputies, police officers, detectives, forensic scientists and FBI agents. As upperclassmen those students will take courses like crime scene investigation, criminal investigations and delinquent behavior as they work toward an associate's of applied science degree.
Legal and judicial studies students will be educated to work as lawyers, paralegals, judges, clerks and politicians. Their coursework will include college-level criminology, sociology and psychology courses with credits obtained going toward an associate's of arts degree.
Both pathways are four-year pathways that will allow students to take additional advanced placement, concurrent enrollment, international baccalaureate and elective coursework outside of the Law and Justice Academy.
"That's kind of the beauty of it, because kids can still be part of other programs," said Tonja Odell, academy coordinator at Pueblo West High. "If they want to do band, choir, weightlifting, any of the other electives, they can still have room in their schedule to be able to do that on top of general education classes."
Most Law and Justice Academy classes will be taken on the Pueblo West High School campus, with some higher-level legal and judicial studies courses taking place at PCC.
A team of community professionaln — including 10th Judicial District Chief Judge Deborah Eyler, Pueblo County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jason Hanratty, Chief Probation Officer David Simental and retired judge Dennis Maes — will serve on an advisory board for the academy. Representatives from the Pueblo Police Department, Colorado State Patrol, Federal Bureau of Prisons and the FBI will also be on the advisory board.
"The community is super excited," Principal Jamison Wagner said. "Tonja has met with the (department of) corrections, the sheriff, the state satrol and everybody is super excited we are doing this because obviously there is a big need at all levels."
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In addition to being home to the Law and Justice Academy, Pueblo West High School will continue to house a mock trial team. Through participation in mock trial, students take on the roles of attorneys and witnesses to present their case to a judge. In 2022, the Pueblo West mock trial team won its region and participated in the state competition.
The Law and Justice Academy will be the second academy offered at Pueblo West High School. Pueblo West's CREATE Academy offers coursework related to coding, robotics, e-commerce, technology and entrepreneurship.
Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo West High unveils plans for new Law and Justice Academy
