October 5th of 2020 marks my 31st anniversary being employed in the law enforcement profession. Having spent the first 29 of those years on patrol in the big city of Metropolis I got used to derogatory comments and gestures hurled in my direction. After all, police officers are exempt for the most part, of being a complainant in a charge of Disorderly Conduct - Abusive Language/Gesture. We are expected to be 'thick skinned' because of the nature of our job and being a representative of government, therefor allowing people to exercise their 1st Amendment rights to free speech. For those of you needing case law, see City of Houston v. Hill (1987). Now don't get me wrong, just because an officer can't charge you for calling him a derogatory name, or for saluting with a certain figure....doesn't necessarily mean that you are getting away completely unscathed. I will say that if that is all you do then I'm cool with you doing you. After all, the more classless someone wants to be the more classy I become ignoring your dumb ass.
At the end of 2018 I retired from big city policing and took a position with a school district specifically to make the remaining years of my career one where I could help mold the little minds of elementary level students BEFORE they had an opportunity to be polluted by the bias's of adult living and the pressures of the hate of the day crowd. On one particular day last month, it was gorgeous outside and a reprieve from the heat and humidity had graced our area. Naturally, this put a little pep in my step as I walked through my schools, making sure they were safe from intruders and making sure that the little eyes saw a police officer in a positive way. All of my illusions suddenly came crashing down.
Picture if you will, a fairly open concept elementary school with young eyes able to see you as you pass their classrooms. They can hear what you say and you can hear what they say. Now, I will say having many decades more experience in the area of listening for threats (31 in law enforcement and 27 in marriage) I for whatever reason can hear things and conversations from a much further distance at work than I can at home.....I think scientists are still studying that phenomenon. Anyway, as I walked through the school I hear "hi police", "hi cop", "thank you for your service", " i want to be an officer", "I like your suit"....general things like that. Now picture two young kindergarten boys sitting on a bench outside of their classroom waiting to be given further directions or redirection and then they see me coming towards them. One of the little boys is smiling (not wearing a mask correctly) and waving and sitting up straight trying to get my attention and hoping for a wave back or a smile (I'm wearing my mask correctly so that is out). The little boy next to him I heard like a pin drop in a library, "don't, he'll shoot you, he'll shoot you." Not only did he say it once, he said it multiple times as I approached them from several feet away and kept saying it as I passed them several feet away. If these two people would have been adults I would have just blown it off, said to myself "what a dumbass", and walked away. But this hit me weird that morning....it came from a 5 or 6 year old! The one kept talking and the other kept waving, not paying attention to the other. As I walked back toward them, it happened again. But this time I saw my reinforcements at hand.
Little did the one talker know, but I knew the Kindergarten teacher that had just approached them and gave them a direction. I pulled her aside and asked her, "who does he belong to?" Before understanding why I was asking her the question she told me his teachers name and then asked why I wanted to know. I turned to where the little ears couldn't hear me and said, "tell the teacher to tell them the last thing I want to do is shoot them." By the look in her eyes I am pretty sure her promise to let the teacher know what happened actually happened.
I'm sure there a few people saying to themselves, what's the big deal. So a little kid mouthed off and said something he shouldn't. After all he's too young to know the difference. EXACTLY! However, what had disturbed me more was that the little kid that was waving was an African American kid and the little kid that was saying I would shoot them was a little Hispanic kid. Now I'm pretty sure that this kid is not watching CNN or MSNBC at home for entertainment but I have a good idea that the adult figures in his home do or they have that same misguided sentiment. I finished my rounds at that school and walked out now not seeing the day so pretty....some of the pep has now left my step.
At my next school, I passed by the Counselor's office and noticed 'the doctor was in' and having a good relationship with her asked her if she could help me process something. She agreed and I told her what had just happened and said wow. This was a relief because now I know it wasn't just me. She validated my thinking that this young person was not hearing this kind of talk from his friends but had to be hearing that kind of talk at home. Feeling much better I continued my waving and checking the safety of the school and multiple times before I left I again heard "hi police!" and in a way letting me know that one bad apple in the basket doesn't make the entire basket bad. And if God must have been watching and listening he knew to send a random adult past me that would say, "thank you for what you do." I was now restored!
If anyone takes anything away from this understand this much, if you are a parent of a young person watch what you do, watch what you say.....they will do or say the same thing.....WAY before you want them to.
