Campus police pay visit to eager children
Continuing it’s tradition of “Community Helper Month,” the Child Development Center invited Saddleback’s campus police stopped by on Feb. 13 to teach the children about safety and answer any questions they had about the job a police officer performs.
Wes Thomas, master teacher of the CDC, gathered the kids and had them all sit in a circle around the officers.
The look of admiration in their eyes would be refreshing to even the most senile of an adult mind.
The children were far from hesitant to ask every possible question that came to their minds. The officers took their time in showing them all the gadgets they use to protect and serve while clearly stating that they “don’t like to fight.”
Officer Looney pulls out the pepper spray and explains how it is used.
It set the kids backward a little bit when he said, ” this spray stings your eyes, and you can also use it on tacos.”
The teachers laughed while the kids were itching to ask some more questions. “How do you call for help?”
The officers pulled out one of their walkie-talkies and used police code to get through to someone on the other end. The kids wanted to play with them as one-boy screams, “I got some of those for Christmas!”
The question and answer part of this demonstration was soon over and surprisingly became a time for the kids to tell the officers about all the bad guys they or their family have come across. A pair of twins quickly raised their hands to say, “A bad guy hit my dad’s car and broke the window and stole his wallet and his ipod.”
Another little girl raised her hand to share that her father had just gotten pulled over and given a ticket.
Most of the questions related to the officers jobs but it seemed that the last little girl to raise her hand was confused.
“My daddy had a headache,” she said, believing the headache was a bad guy.
It was a great experience for both the children and the officers. “It is great to see the way a little innocent mind works,” says Officer Garcia, “we want kids to be more comfortable calling us for help rather than be afraid of our authority.”