Iola Middle School seventh- and eighth-grade students were given the opportunity to take a hunter safety course as an elective this year.
The nine-week course is taught in conjunction with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and offers students a chance to learn safe ways to handle firearms and bows and arrows.
In addition, the students learn safety when in a hunting or outdoor environment.
“Kids are given fundamentals and the basics of nature,” hunter safety course instructor John Wilson said.
Once the students complete the course they will receive a hunter safety certificate, which allows them to hunt with a parent or guardian until they are old enough to be by themselves.
The students will get a real-life learning experience after the completion of their course. Oct. 12 the students, who have passed and have parental permission, will take a trip to Wilson’s family farm for a “Live Fire” field trip.
On the trip the students will be given the opportunity to shoot a 20-gauge shotgun, shoot a bow and arrow, go on a wildlife management trail and a weapons management trail.
The activities will be lead by KDWP and Conservations officer Ben Womelsdorf.
“It is about teaching them the right way (to use firearms and bows and arrows),” Wilson said. “There is an emphasis on safety in the course, and a lot of it is common sense.”
Wilson suggested his family farm because he considers himself more of a naturalist than a hunter.
His family farm has nature trails and buffers to enhance wildlife.
This is the first year the course has been offered and Wilson said two things that surprised him were “the knowledge some of the kids exhibit prior to the course and their excitement.”
Normally a hunter safety course is a 20-hour program. Wilson says spreading the course out over a nine-week period gives the instructors a chance to break down the chapters and spend more time teaching the students the importance of safety.
