Bellevue school resource officer honored with national award for teaching about impaired driving

A school resource officer in Bellevue is taking initiative: teaching high school students the dangers of impaired driving.

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‘Changes their perspective’: Bellevue school resource officer wins award for teaching about impaired driving

BELLEVUE, Neb. —

A school resource officer in Bellevue is taking initiative: teaching high school students the dangers of impaired driving.

Officer Matthew Vann has been with the Bellevue Police Department for five years. Nearly two years ago, he became a school resource officer at Bellevue West High School. Around that same time, Vann was asked to speak to kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

“When I looked into what kind of resources I had to take to the class with me to teach, there really wasn’t anything,” Vann said.

That immediately sparked inspiration in Vann.

“We need something more to show the kids firsthand. I can tell them all about stuff from a PowerPoint or statistics, but it’s going to go through one ear and out the other,” Vann said.

Vann took a course on instructing, researched and created an Impaired Driving Course in the Bellevue West gym.

“To bring something more hands-on to the kids, to give them that ability to actually experience it, changes their perspective,” Vann said.

The course consists of four stations; the first involves the basic walk-in-a-straight-line test. Then it moves to fine motor skill tests; students attempt to put pegs in holes and complete cup stacks. After that, the true test: driving the pedal cars.

“It’s just that level of impairment that we’re showing the kids how this is going to affect your depth perception and your ability to function,” Vann said.

High schoolers complete each station without impairment goggles first, then with, to experience the impact of impairment.

“I wanted to make sure that we understood all impairment. So, I got a drowsy set that focuses on being drowsy and driving. Then I got one that also (simulates) cannabis,” Vann said.

And, of course, goggles simulating being drunk. Vann has two pairs, one that simulates being tipsy and another giving a view of what it is like to be “totally wasted.”

Vann was honored for his work last month in Nevada by the National Association of School Resource Officers and the National Road Safety Foundation.

Vann’s co-workers secretly submitted him for the “Innovation in the Classroom” award. Vann found this out while simultaneously receiving the other piece of good news: that he won.

Vann hopes the course continues to grow through Bellevue Schools. He said he also hopes other departments consider starting something similar.

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