SAN ANTONIO – Students are feeling safe with the addition of a four-legged K9 to the Southwest ISD police force.
“I feel more safe now that he’s here, and all I feel like he is committed to making the community better,” said Richard Luebano, a 5th grader at Southwest ISD’s Kriewald School of the Arts.
The first K9 to join the district’s police team will be sniffing firearms and narcotics at campuses, events, football games, and more.
The 18-month-old Belgian Malinois' name is Ranger. He was named after a naming contest that took place across the district. The winner was a 5th grader, Richard Luebano, from Kriewald School of the Arts.
“I think, what if he could be like maybe Ranger,” Richard said. “So I’m thinking in my head it sounds right because he’ll be like a backup cop, which is usually a ranger. So that’s how I thought of his name, you know, Ranger.”
Ranger is actually more than a backup officer but is considered an officer on Southwest ISD’s force. He will be sitting for his official badge picture this week.
Ranger was introduced to the students at Kriewald with a demonstration of how he can sniff out objects.
He went through months of training before he could meet his new K9 handler, Bonnie Casarez. The past few weeks Ranger and Officer Casarez have gone through team training.
“I would say a lot of work went into it, but it’s just something I enjoy,” Officer Casarez said. “I don’t see it as work. I see it as. I guess something that’s a calling, I believe.”
Ranger and Officer Casarez were made possible through a $200,000 donation from the SWISD Educational Foundation, which funded his purchase and training. Twenty thousand dollars of that donation was used for Officer Casarez and Ranger’s training, and for the purchase of Ranger.
SWISD Superintendent Jeanette Ball believes Ranger will keep the district safer and will give parents and the community peace of mind.
“I think our parents are going to love Ranger,” Ball said. “I think that it’s going to help them see that we really do put the student’s priority first in regards to safety.”