Wasilla Middle students receive hunter safety certifications at Grouse Ridge

WASILLA — Wasilla Middle School students in Kristin Strawn’s connections class took a unique field trip on Wednesday, traveling to Grouse Ridge Shooting Club to take the field test portion of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game hunter safety course.

Strawn said that 93 % of the students that began the course through a 45-page workbook passed the written test and were able to participate in the field trip where they were instructed on proper firearm safety at Grouse Ridge.

“Don’t aim at people, muzzle awareness, keep the safety on oh yeah breathe, aim,” said Aiden Pharr.

Strawn’s class became the first MSBSD class to receive hunter safety education through the school district, and students at Wasilla High School will follow suit in the spring semester. Students were instructed on different shooting positions and shot .22 rifles at targets at Grouse Ridge following safety instruction from hunter safety instructor Kirk Lingofelt and Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Ralf Lysdahl.

“With my line of work I like education as opposed to violation and so getting in with the youth especially ahead of time and talking to them and getting that foundation down can set how things go for the entire life, and even telling them if you see your parents or someone else doing an unsafe act or something you didn’t learn man call them out on it and trying to breed that good ethics into those hunters that are real young,” said Lysdahl.

A total of 28 students were broken into groups and moved throughout the grounds at Grouse Ridge. A group of students were taught a lesson in knowing what is behind a target they are shooting at by trying to spot an article of camouflage clothing in the trees as opposed to a safety orange colored garment. Strawn took each of her students through the 45-page ADF&G workbook where they were required to pass the written test to be allowed to go on the field trip where they got to shoot rifles at targets.

“A lot of times the students say Ms. Strawn, when are we ever going to use this in class? They’re going to use this for the rest of their lives, this is safety,” said Strawn. “This is real life education. You know when kids go back and they can’t balance a checkbook because they didn’t learn it in school, like they have to know how to do these things and hunting, gun safety, this is huge in our state.”

Strawn, WMS safety officer Jim Gouveia and safety instructors taught the 28 students not to point the muzzle of the gun anywhere that was unsafe, not to put take the safety off until they were ready to shoot and not to put their finger on the trigger until they were ready to shoot. Among the students that took Strawn’s hunter safety certification course was WMS Assistant Principal Allegra Butler, who also had not yet received her certification. Butler and Aiden Pharr took turns spotting targets for one another as the students moved from standing to seated shooting positions.

“In a classroom you don’t learn like, its on paper but when you’re actually here touching the actual firearms you learn and have a better idea on how to handle them,” said Viktor Ramirez. “I had fun because I had never actually shot an actual rifle. I had shot pistols in the past but never a rifle and it was a fun learning experience overall.”

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game waived all fees for the students to take the course. Strawn said she felt it was important to offer the hunter safety certification course to allow students to have the opportunity to learn how to safely handle firearms. While about half of the students had experience hunting with their families, the other half were brand new to the experience.

“Every student wanted to be here, every student wanted to take this class, every student did 45 pages in a workbook so that they could come here,” said Strawn. “Every student worked their butt off. I had several students have to take the test twice just to be able to pass the test.”