By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
“Superman was raised as Clark Kent by small town farmers and taught to value truth and justice.”
It’s a fitting story to be read in a Camden elementary school. Police officers — off their gritty patrol beat — paired with kindergarten students for weekly reading sessions.
“They’re used to seeing police on the street or they know a relative who’s had a negative interaction with police. But this allows them to see the police officer as their friend, instead of someone that they should be afraid of,” said Camden County Police Officer Cabria Davis.
The program is called Pacer. Police and Congress Enjoy Reading and it’s being rolled out at the Bonsall Elementary School, in one of Camden’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
The idea is to make a first connection with the students and officers in the classroom, instead of on the streets.
“So this was a nice positive way to do that. Have children go home to their parents and say, ‘Wow I spent 30 minutes today with this police officer and they read to me and we talked.’ So it’s a way of integrating what we need to do around literacy and really building the community back up,” said Camden City Schools Assistant Superintendent Andrea Gonzalez-Kirwin.
“Generationally they’re exposed to negativity when it comes to the police department. There’s a lot of layers of different things inside their family that they have to combat with on a daily basis where this might be the first time in the day where they actually have somebody speaking nice to them,” said Camden County Police Sergeant Pete Rogers.
When kindergartner Josiah Duffy was asked if he gets scared seeing an officer with a uniform on, he shook his head no. When asked if they’re buddies now, he said, “Yes.”
“I think initially the reaction from some of the kids was a little bit of hesitation. But now that we’ve been into this for a few weeks you can see how their thoughts and feelings have changed,” said kindergarten teacher Rochelle Brenner.
When asked what’s her favorite part, kindergartner Blessing Jefferson-Hill said, “Pigalicious.”
“They love it, you know. Reading the books, you turn the page and just their expression’s like wow! You know they’re really excited to actually see the book. So it’s nice to see,” said Camden County Police Officer Ryan Miller.
Kindergartner Austin Michelle said his favorite are scary books.
“It’s definitely a welcome change of pace from what we deal with normally,” Miller said.
One important factor to the program that may be overlooked is the interaction between the officers and the teachers. Their one-on-one time with each student gives them an insight not always accessibly to educators. If the program goes well here, they hope to roll it out to other schools in the district next year.