Kaliah Wooden says the April 17 shooting motivated him to pursue a career in school safety, starting this week at Ruediger Elementary.
Wooden was working as a groundskeeper at FSU when the attack took place. Superintendent Rocky Hanna says Wooden graduated top of his training class. Watch the video below to hear what message Wooden has for younger generations interested in law enforcement. Florida State shooting motivates former employee to start new career as Safe School Officer
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The tragic Florida State University shooting back on April 17 led one FSU employee to completely alter his career path.
I’m Alberto Camargo, your neighborhood reporter in College Town.
Speaking with one of the newest Safe School Officers here in Leon County about his journey since that day.
When shots rang out at Florida State University, Kaliah Wooden was working as a grounds keeper on campus.
He says the tragedy changed his life, and made him want to help keep Leon County students safe when they go to school.
“From that day forward it was just like an eye opener to me, because me thinking for my kids, for the staff that I have now at Ruediger, all the other teachers, and the whole community as one could be easily be impacted by a situation like this,” Wooden says.
As a current member of the U.S. Navy Reserve, Wooden says his SSO training was as difficult as anything he’s ever done.
But it helped him grow to where he needed to be.
“You can do anything you want to do. Don’t listen to all the stereotypes and all the negative about life in general like military, teachers, law enforcement. If that’s something you really want to do you should do it. Look at me, I’m in this position to protect all kinds of kids from different races, different backgrounds, that’s something that I wanted to do.”
And with support from his new coworkers, Wooden says he has felt like a part of the family.
When we caught up with Superintendent Rocky Hanna, he said Wooden struggled in training at first, but persevered and eventually thrived.
“The first say they said he’s not going to make it. It was a big learning curve for the guy. The second day they’re like I just don’t see it happening. Third day started catching on a little. By the fifth day they said he was rocking it. And he ended up at the end of the training, end of the course, graduating top of his class,” Hanna said.
In his first week as an SSO with Ruediger Elementary, Wooden says it’s been a great start to the school year.
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