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Western Carolina University students recently helped deputies with the Macon County Sheriff’s Office learn and practice basic “survival Spanish” phrases that could help them on the job.
The training was the latest expansion in Western North Carolina of a service-learning initiative developed and coordinated by Jamie Davis, an assistant professor of Spanish and French at WCU, for law enforcement officers.
WCU students in an intermediate Spanish course and a Spanish for criminal justice professionals course led a free training session at the Macon County Sheriff’s Office.
They practiced Spanish phrases with the officers such as “drop the weapon” (¡Suelte el arma!) and “turn around” (¡Voltéese!) and then assisted in role-playing exercises using the phrases.
“I absolutely loved working in Macon County with the deputies,” said Ashley Corwin, a junior Spanish and criminal justice major from Granite Falls. “I went in not knowing exactly what we were doing, nor did I know exactly how to help them. I left knowing all of the commands that we taught them that day, and I still remember them.”
The purpose of the training is not to help officers become fluent in Spanish, but to teach them phrases that will allow them to improve officer safety and to establish basic control in situations that involve people who speak Spanish, said Davis.
About 3 percent of the population in Macon County is Hispanic, according to statistics from 2007 reported by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Davis, who has been a police officer for more than a decade and still works on some weekends as an officer, developed the “survival Spanish” training in honor of Darryl Lunsford, a Texas constable who was gunned down by three Spanish-speaking individuals in 1991. Lunsford’s killers discussed their plan to kill right in front of him, but the constable didn’t know what they were saying, Davis said.
For more information about the initiative or to inquire about developing Spanish training for an organization in Western North Carolina, contact Davis at (828) 227-3872.
Maintained by the Office of Public Relations
Last Modified: Thursday, April 23, 2009