Killeen ISD’s fire academy graduates

hoosing a path of service early in life, a group of Killeen Independent School District high school students graduated from the district’s fire academy Saturday, a week before earning their high school diplomas. At a graduation ceremony at the city’s fire training center, two veteran Killeen firefighters and two educators congratulated the cadets for stepping into a difficult career field to serve their fellow citizens.

Completing the two-year academy course meant the students managed to complete their junior and senior years of high school while completing the training to become certified firefighters.

Killeen Fire Department Lt. Randy Pearson, the training officer, pointed out that adult academy candidates spend six months at the city’s fire academy working eight hours a day, five days a week to earn firefighter certification.

In many ways, he said, the students have a steeper challenge as they navigate through the last two years of high school, manage the difficulties of being a teenager and take on the grown-up task of learning about fire suppression and saving lives in traumatic situations.

“They stayed on top of it, and they finished,” Pearson said. “And that’s why I’m proud of them.”

The task of completing the program ran parallel to the challenges in front of the students who end up completing their civil service test and finding a job in a fire department.

Both the two-year training and the career itself require dedication and sacrifice, as well as support from family and peers. Pearson said he watched the teenagers move “from kids to adults” in their two years of training. “They become people who do anything they can to help others.”

Kenneth Hawthorne, KFD deputy chief, praised the school district’s academy, which graduated its fifth class Saturday, as well as the hardworking students and teachers.

The program started in 2003, surviving only because a small group of students recruited their friends to join them in order to make up the minimum class size.

The result was the second high school fire academy in the nation and a blueprint for other school districts to follow, said Hawthorne and Dee Levens, acting director of KISD’s Career Technology Education program. She said Pearson wrote the state’s curriculum for high school fire academies.

“You’ve chosen a path of service to your fellow citizens,” Hawthorne told the cadets, as they stood in formation in two rows in front of an audience of family members, their teachers and friends.

As firefighters and emergency medical technicians, he said, they would be called to help when no one else could do the job. From pulling people from car wrecks to delivering babies in unexpected places, to battling grass fires and other emergencies, he said they would lend a hand in saving lives and property.

Levens thanked the parents in the audience for entrusting the city’s fire trainers and KISD’s teachers as they sent their sons and daughters “to do this big-person stuff and allow them to move into this career at an early age.”

“We’ve required a lot of them,” said Rebecca Hammontree who helped teach the EMT part of the program. She said the students were bonded together as they worked alongside medical personnel in local hospitals to complete their training.

Ten of the graduating students passed the state commission on fire protection test to become certified firefighters and EMTs. That’s the largest number from the KISD program to do so, Pearson said.

Another student, Kyle Cheadle, didn’t start the two-year program until his senior year. He won a scholarship from the academy to pay for his second year of training through the KFD academy. Top academic honors went to Timothy Daughtry, an Ellison High School senior, and Luis Rosado, a Killeen High School senior.

“We came in and knew nothing,” Daughtry said . “Through Lieutenant Pearson and our other teachers, we got the training and skills we needed. Everyone here is family.”

“It was exciting and so much fun,” Rosado said. “Now I have the courage I need, and I know what I’m doing. Working together was the best part – knowing we had each other’s back.”

Daughtry and Rosado said they planned to complete their civil service tests and apply to the Killeen Fire Department for a job.
By Todd Martin, The Killeen Daily Herald