I Help My Mom Find Dead Bodies
I met with Jaime today. As a policewoman, she has worked in a number of locations including first serving in a small suburban area outside our city. After that she became a county deputy in several rural towns. Now she is working with us as a school resource officer in several schools, including a middle school and the local alternative school.
Jaime loves kids. She and her husband have two small ones of their own. One is just four months old.
As I listened to her talk I thought how young she looked. She could have easily blended in with the students at the alternative school if it weren’t for her uniform.
I asked her if she always knew she wanted to be in law enforcement. “I wanted to teach or be a policewoman and hoped I could maybe blend both of those one day.†Jaime said. When she heard of the opportunity to be a school resource officer, she jumped at it and they took her up on it. “I sure didn’t go into it for the money.†Jaime reflected. Teachers don’t either, I thought. There is just a drive and passion deep inside if you want to be in either of those professions.
While some of her colleagues can’t believe she wanted to be a school resource officer at those schools, Jaimie thinks she’s a natural at it. She loves working with students and helping them make better choices. She is getting ready to go for training in GREAT, a gang prevention program that she will come back and use with her students in the classroom setting. “Now I’ll really get to teach.†She said as she smiled. I could tell she could hardly wait to get started.
Jaime talked about how much her four year old daughter loves school. “The other day,†she said, her daughter’s teacher called to say that she was concerned. Her daughter had told the class she helps her mom find dead bodies. Needless to say, the class was in awe and the teacher was without a reasonable explanation.
She smiled as she explained that she had taken her daughter to a training session she needed to go to and suspected her daughter had been listening more carefully than she thought she was. They had to have a conversation to be a bit more careful about what she says to her classmates in the future. I could tell, however, that she was proud of her daughter.
As I listened to Jaime, sitting across from me in her uniform, I was reminded that law enforcement officers are just like the rest of us. They are making a living doing what they love to do. They are just willing to put themselves in harms way more often than most of us. Their desire to make the world a safer place for all of us is what they thrive on.
My wish for you today: That you will consider the sacrifice law enforcement officers make for us so we can feel safe going and coming in our everyday lives. When you see them, take a minute to thank them for what they do. They will appreciate your thoughtfulness.
~Joellen