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Michael Tatum has been teaching law enforcement and coaching UIL for 5 years, and the hardest part every year is watching the seniors graduate. To overcome that bittersweet moment, the students welcome new members into the law team at the end of the school year.
April 17 was the first practice to meet and welcome the new members onto the law team.
“We really didn’t have too many new people on the team this year, but the new people kind of came to us,” sophomore Lilian Stephen said. “The more people we have on the team, the more events we can compete in.”
The seniors who are leaving are Jason Brock, Connor Ferreira, Leif Hayes, Finn Miller and Bryce Neeley.
“The seniors have become like family to me,” Stephen said. “It definitely won’t be the same without them.
The seniors aren’t only leaving the law team, but the memories they have created as well.
“I’m going to miss the competitions and the practices,” Ferreira said. “My fondest memories have to be the cell extraction practices, namely the first one. Everyone was brand new; no one knew what we were doing. Looking at us then, tripping and falling over each other to where we ended up, placing first in state.”
Not only will the seniors miss their teammates, but their law enforcement teacher too.
“Tatum is the embodiment of teachers are people too,” Ferreira said. “Tatum is one of my favorite teachers in this school because he’s genuine, but he’s also compassionate and even funny.”
The seniors’ peers won’t be the only ones who miss them, but their teacher as well.
“I will miss my seniors, and I feel like we have a great relationship,” Tatum said. “It’s very emotional losing team members every year because I spend so much time training with them.”
As the seniors prepare to leave high school, the remaining Law students start preparing for next school year. The first step is to reestablish ranks.
Lena Jefferies will be promoted to Chief, Jon Harris to Captain, and Loreily Mejia to Sergeant.
The second step is to start setting standards on not only the remaining members, but the new ones as well.
“The main standards I’d put on these new members has to be them having good communication,” Ferreira said. “Communication is key in everything, it keeps everyone up to date, keeps everyone safe. They also need to have that drive and determination, that ambition to do the best.”
The last step is to start reestablishing teams and finding who fits better in what position since the team will be losing some essential assets.
“We will be losing very important assets, and we will have to rebuild the team by adding five new team members,” Tatum said.
Though the seniors are leaving and new members come in, to overcome such a bittersweet moment Tatum has announced that CTE Coordinator Liz Haviland is attempting to get the team a double block to practice.
“I think it will be very beneficial because the team can get a lot more hands on training,” Tatum said.
As the end of the year approaches, the members start to feel a wave of emotions overcome them as the realization that the seniors, their friends, are officially leaving to take the next step in their lives.
“This year I definitely got to know everyone better,” Stephen said. “The bus rides are always super fun, there’s lots of music and laughter. No matter how many problems the team ran into , we still stayed together.”
