Job Corps Homeland Security Students Assist With Winter X Games

Students from San Diego Job Corps' Homeland Security program flew to Aspen, CO last month to assist with security at the Winter X Games.

"We were working 12 plus hours a day. When we weren't working we were sleeping," said instructor Raymond Hondl.

Among events the team of students helped secure include the snowboard halfpipe and snowmobile jumps where they saw San Diegan Sean White win the gold.

Job Corps has also been invited to help with security at the Summer X Games in Los Angeles in June, Hondl said.

Homeland Security students also helped with security at the Red Bull New Years Eve jump part of San Diego Bay.

To prepare, it took three weeks to set up ramps and another week to tear it down, he said.

"We worked out there for about two to three weeks and probably had 40 to 50 former and current students working out there," Hondl said.

Attending big events like the X Games or the Red Bull jump can be a lot of fun, and a chance to gawk at the occasional celebrity, but they teach students how to deal with difficult people.

"They have to deal with people who are agitated or mad or pissed off, so they learn how to talk to them correctly and stuff like that," he said.

The introduction to law enforcement career program teaches students some laws, how to write reports, how to put handcuffs on people, inspection safety, security, how to pat people down and other skills.

"These guys are 18 19 years old not old enough to be in police force yet so looking for some experience," Hondl said. "A lot of them go into the military."