TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Book 'Em, Pasco Deputies Tell Students

ADVERTISEMENT

By KLINT LOWRY

The Suncoast News

Published: March 15, 2009

SHADY HILLS - More than half a dozen Pasco sheriff's deputies converged at Shady Hills Elementary School on a recent Wednesday morning. They were there to read anyone their rights - just to read.

The deputies were there to take part in a program called Books and Badges. Using books selected by school staff, the officers led story time sessions for pre-kindergarten through second-grade classes.

Pasco County Deputy Toni Roach, a school resource officer, explained that the idea behind the program is stressing the importance of education. It is a subject in which law enforcement has a vested interest.

"Of course, there's an inverse relationship between education and crime," Roach said. "The more educated they are, the less likely they are to commit a crime."

Deputy Greg Smith started Books and Badges five years ago, when he was school resource officer at Calusa Elementary School in New Port Richey. A colleague had told him about a program called Books and Dads that recruited fathers, taking them out of their usual element and making use of their position as role models to promote reading.

The thought was the same could be done with law enforcement officers, and it went over so well at Calusa that this year it was decided to take the program to all eight Pasco elementary schools with SROs from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Besides promoting reading, Books and Badges has proven to have other benefits. As SROs, Roach and Smith enjoy a sense of familiarity with the students at their school. But in general, an officer in uniform can be intimidating to young children. To have a uniformed police officer come to class and tell a story, maybe getting a little goofy while they do it, puts them in a different light.

"It tries to get the kids to realize we're not just the gun and the badge," Smith said, "we're people, too, and we're here for them."

That benefit works both ways, said Col. Al Nienhuis, the undersheriff. Books and Badges gives deputies a break from the stereotypical day in uniform.

When juvenile delinquents are the only youngsters you deal with on the job, a classroom full of happy, enthusiastic 5-year-olds is refreshing, Nienhuis said. It's a chance to break out of the usual on-the-job persona and connect with kids in a positive way.

Cpl. Scott Anderson seemed to have little trouble getting into the right mindset as he came before Danielle Thomson's second-grade class to present "The Teeny Tiny Woman" by Jane O'Connor.

"There was a teeny tiny woman," the 36-year-old veteran officer read, "One day she put on her teeny tiny hat and got her teeny tiny bag and went for a teeny tiny walk."

"Is everything going to be teeny tiny?" a student chimed in.

"I don't know, but I think I'm going to be saying 'teeny tiny' a lot more," Anderson answered.

Anderson stopped from time to time to show the book's illustrations and discuss the plot. When the teeny tiny woman found a bone in a graveyard and took it home to make soup, everyone agreed it was a bad idea for a number of reasons.

Later, when a ghost came to reclaim the bone, everyone agreed that with few exceptions storybook ghosts should have deep voices.

Between critiques of the story and of Anderson's dramatic interpretation, Thomson even managed to get in a brief lesson about adjectives. But as classroom activities go, this one is more about long-term benefits.

"Hopefully, you'll make an impression," Nienhuis said. "You never know when you'll say the right thing to the right kid and it's going to be something they remember when they have a decision to make, when they're at a fork in the road."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT