Page 436 - NIXBOOK

I was popular enough to get nominated and win “Cop of the Week’ by a Seattle radio station, they sent me this:

Funny, because I don’t listen to country music!

I had some good parking spots for my police car at the school; the best one was in the back near my office. I liked having it close
by so if I had to run out to something I could get to it quickly. One of the spots I had was near a route that a lot of kids walked
to and from the music building and I discovered that one kid had decided that he needed to spit a big loogie onto one of my
side windows every time he walked past. After I narrowed down the time frame that this was apparently happening in, I found
a nearby window to peek out of; it was actually for a maintenance room that had a window above their door, which meant I had
to get on a stepladder to look out. I wasn’t on my stakeout too long before I saw the kids walk by and spit on my car; he was in
police custody about ten seconds later and then wound up in the principal’s office before being suspended from school for about
a week. I still remember his name.
I also remember another kid who used to talk smack to me every once in a while when he walked by in the crowded hallways;
he liked making comments about how I wasn’t a real cop and only a school cop. One day he made some snide comment about
being essentially like a mall cop and I snapped. Not caring that at least a dozen other students were near us, I grabbed him by
his collar and pushed him up against a wall. Actually got his feet off the ground, too. I told him in no uncertain words that I was
a fully commissioned police officer with full authority to enforce any and all state laws. I can’t remember what I actually said (or
snarled) to him but I remember his eyes got real wide and it scared him enough that after that he was very respectful to me.
This was of course in the days before every kid had a phone that recorded video. Good God if I did that nowadays it would be
on youtube in minutes and I’d be put on administrative leave, I’m sure. It was a different time back then!
As a quasi-staff member of the school district, I learned to somewhat brazenly walk in to the photo shoots every year on picture
day and got my photo taken as one of the staff members. Nobody invited me, but nobody discouraged me, either. It was
uncharted territory back then so I sometimes I made up the rules as a went along. So to this day, in my small box of keepsakes
I have a collection of my staff ID cards from different school each year that that I got issued with my name and photo. And
because I had my picture taken as a staff member, I got included in all the school’s yearbooks.