Don’t forget the QANON coffee cup on the desk. Maybe it belongs to the teacher but maybe the police officer sitting behind it.
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I’ve also found this to be true. It’s not just the stupidity, it’s also the aggressive right-wing hyper-macho attitude.
It can change. One of my daughters is a lecturer in Criminology and Justice Studies (her focus is on social justice), a lot of her entry-level criminology courses are filled with people wanting to become cops in states that now require a degree. Hopefully that will filter out at least some of the dumb ones. I really don’t have much hope that they’ll improve their attitude.
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Damn!!! I thought you were joking, but there it is on the red cup, a big “Q”!!!
That alone should disqualify you from holding a job anywhere.
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Of course they are armed, they’re in a school, duh.
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Some municipalities require their cops to be carrying at all times. It’s not a southern thing, either, it’s a nation-wide thing. 
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Charm offensive for sure. My first thought seeing the headline and pic of Officer Friendly was “big PR win for Moore PD.”
Easy points to rack up. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of this.
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Well-spotted!
My first thought, after you pointed that cup on the desk:
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Is it, though?
Why would anyone assume a cop with no higher education and no teaching experience would be qualified to step in to replace a teacher? There’s a nursing shortage too, but we don’t assume any untrained cop could handle a nurse’s job. If a restaurant was understaffed we wouldn’t expect a cop to replace a chef who had years of culinary training. If a CEO was out sick we wouldn’t assume any untrained cop could do the job as well as someone who went to business school.
This is yet another symptom of a society that has a dismissive if not outright hostile attitude toward education and treats teachers like glorified babysitters.
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As emergency babysitters I see the appeal. The appeal being that they’ve already got background checks on file with the local government. It’s not the sort of thing you can get done at a moments notice, and I’m pretty sure it’s highly illegal to ask a random intellectual off the street to manage a room of children alone.
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That was the model my school used at the start of last year and it was a disaster! It could have worked if we had appropriate technology: Wireless mics, Multiple cameras, etc. Instead I was stuck standing in front of a cheap computer so the kids at home might stay engaged. If I went to help a kid in the room for a moment all of the online kids disappeared.
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what could possibly go wrong?
above quote edited to eliminate the link to facebook.
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Sorry you got stuck in that situation. But again, we should have this sorted by now. What you’re describing isn’t at all what I’m describing (or at least, not what I’m picturing).
The technology is readily available and pretty inexpensive, it just takes someone at the school willing to think it through and set up the classrooms. And it should not fall on the teachers, though, obviously, their input should be sought.
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Covid is now the number one killer of cops. Crap like this, not wearing respiratory protection in the middle of an airborne pandemic, is just part of why.
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I was also wondering who else is on the city payroll who could step in to teach kids in the classroom.
I mean, are these only (presumably noninfectious) city workers who pass the required background checks for teachers [who are entrusted to be in a room with kids] available in the entire city? Seriously?
I get it about staffing shortages, a much-diminished pool of substitute teachers to call upon, and the needs of some families who see no other option than to send their kids into school…
… but there must be a larger range of options than…
Btw, Moore got direct damage from two tornadoes (1999, 2013), had to rebuild its destroyed schools, and I can imagine its school districts may not have giant piles surplus money sitting around for upping teacher pay, hiring and importing qualified teachers from outside the district or state, etc.:
ETA: clarifier
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Yeah but I bet they found the money to hire licensed contractors to rebuild the schools instead of just sending a bunch of cops with a pickup truck full of 2x4s and a can-do spirit.
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So we sent members of a profession that is legally allowed to discriminate against and not hire people of above average intelligence to teach kids. How are these children going to get an actual education, one filled with critical thinking and creativity – oh, wait, I guess that’s no longer a consideration, is it?
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I certainly agree it should be sorted by now. The teachers knew what we needed to make it work, but the district didn’t want to invest in the technology before they knew what we would need. Then we were in distance. Then we got an MOU that we would never have to teach both live and remote simultaneously, so there was no will to buy the technology, and now the word is it’s too late, every thing will be normal soon. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
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