District Partners with Local Law Enforcement
Visitors to any of the Greensburg Salem schools may raise an eyebrow to the frequency at which they are seeing a police car parked alongside the buildings. Our GS school community is not seeing an influx of concerns that warrant police attentionrather, quite the opposite. The district has partnered with the City of Greensburg Police Department to have officers participate in“ drop-in” visits to the High School, Middle School, and Nicely Elementary buildings, allowing students to build connections and develop positive relationships with local law enforcement. Metzgar Elementary, outside of city limits, is visited regularly by Pennsylvania State Police officers, while Hutchinson sees regular visits from Southwest Greensburg Police Department. Strengthening ties between police and GS students, while promoting positive interactions and communication with the officers, elicits a safe and secure environment within the schools.
Police officers have been enjoying their time visiting the schools as much as the students enjoy seeing them and having oneon-one or small group attention from these authority figures. Some visit at lunch time, sitting down at lunch tables and engaging students in conversation in the casual setting of the cafeteria. Others have stopped by the library or teacher classrooms to take some time to read a story to the class. Parents may be surprised to see a uniformed officer, poised on the kickball field, ready to blast the ball to the outfield with every child on the playground wanting to take part in the game. Patrolman Jason Dieter’ s smiling face greets the Nicely community as he carries homemade cookies into school to share with the students during lunchtime visits. Officer Regina McAtee enjoys meeting students in the library, cafeteria, or class settings because she prefers to be seen not as an authority policing the halls, but as a trusted adult students can relate to. Other officers have attended not only schools, but
Patrolman Jason Dieter surrounded by Nicely third graders.
Officer Regina McAtee’ s kind demeanor sets Cubs Den preschool student at ease during a voluntary car seat safety check. spaghetti dinners, sporting events, and open houses, engaging students and their families while forming personal relationships.
The commitment of the men and women of the police department to get to know the students and staff of Greensburg Salem is part of an outreach program within the district. The program was created to develop a rapport meant to strengthen the communication between children and young adults in Greensburg and the officers that serve the area, as well as keep the schools safe. According to Chief Chad Zucco,“ We want the kids to be able to come up and talk to us, tell us if they are having any problems or issues. We want them to make certain they know that we are approachable.” Superintendent Eileen Amato believes that students feel safer as they get to know the officers as people, and view them as role models.
To maintain safety and security, Chief Zucco reports that the officers are not on a set visiting schedule to the school buildings. He reports,“ People need two things to commit crimes, desire and opportunity. Hopefully, by someone not knowing when or where a police officer may be in the schools, that takes away some portion of the opportunity. It is impossible to take away anyone’ s desire, so we must chip away at the opportunity.” The department is in the planning stages of other initiatives to further integrate the officers into the school community, such as drug and alcohol awareness activities for students and programs to incorporate parents into the initiatives’ forum. Ultimately, the goal of the partnerships between local law enforcement and Greensburg Salem School District is to lead to strong community connections with children and their families and promote positive, safe school environments for our GS students.
reensburg Salem
GREENSBURG SALEM SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
Teacher’ s Author Mom Shares Ishkabibble
Published author, Carlene Painter, visited third-grade classes at Nicely Elementary to share her book, Ishkabibble: A Fun Word to Use When Angry. The students were surprised, excited, and elated to learn the special connection the author has to their school- Mrs. Painter is the mom of third-grade teacher, Mrs. Karin Stamford! Students were enthralled as they listened to Ishkabibble, an entertaining story of a young boy who finds a solution to using bad language by instead using a silly word when he is angry. Afterward, Mrs. Painter shared the importance of making revisions, a developing skill in the third-grade writing curriculum. Before Ishkabibble could be published, Mrs. Painter had to make 51 revisions to her original story! She encouraged students to edit and revise, erase and rewrite, as many times as needed to make their own projects just right. Her fun story also taught them a contagious word that they love repeating over and over … Ishkabibble!
Author Carlene Painter with daughter, third-grade teacher Karin Stamford.
Greensburg-Salem | Winter 2016 | icmags. com 33