AMS Resource Officer

AMS Resource Officer
Flashing Red & Blue lights: Police

Officer Elbert Branch
Albemarle Police Department

Officer Branch picture

G.R.E.A.T

ALBEMARLE, N.C. – Albemarle Middle School has teamed up with the police department to bring a gang-prevention program to the campus.

Teachers and students at the school said kids as young as 11 years old are involved in gangs there.

The program is known as GREAT -- Gang Resistance Education and Training.

“We teach them life skills: conflict resolution, anger management, how to calm themselves and calm others – basically to avoid fights and joining gangs,” said Officer E.S. Branch of the Albemarle Police Deparment.

The school held a ceremony Friday for its first GREAT graduating class of more than 180 sixth-graders.

Although the program is unique to the Charlotte area, it began in Arizona in 1991. Since then more than 4 million students nationwide have participated in the program.