ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Carmesha Calhoun led about a dozen 7-year-olds from Stix Early Childhood Center along a police academy hallway Tuesday preparing them for the big moment.
"Breath in, now shake it out," she told them, emphasizing her own breathing, and movements. "Now let's practice."
She went to each student, shaking hands.
"A little bit firmer, but don't hurt the man," she said. "Don't shake his arm off."
On the other side of the wall, Police Chief Dan Isom waited to greet the youngsters, who were among 250 public school district students participating in the annual Books and Badges program.
For the past nine years, police recruits such as Calhoun have been partnered with children as tutors, a mandatory requirement on their path to becoming a city police officer.
For about an hour each week over about four months, Calhoun and another cadet visited with the second-grade class. Teacher Marsha Numi assigned them to work with three students for about 15 minutes at a time.
The youngsters obviously enjoyed it. "If they didn't get their turn or their full 15 minutes because time ran out, they would make me write their name down to be first on the list for the next week," Numi said.
The program may be the first of its kind in the country, said Karen Kalish, who began the effort. She got the idea while riding along with a police officer about 10 years ago. She purposefully requested to ride from 7 p.m. to midnight on a Saturday.
"It was so boring," she said. "There was really nothing going on."
But the experience exposed her to insight from the officer and the realization that many criminals cannot read. She approached then-Chief Joe Mokwa with the idea of pairing officers with children who struggled with reading. "He told me you can't have the police because they need to be on the streets, but I'll give you the recruits," Kalish said.
Isom, then the director of the police academy, welcomed the idea. "Our mission is to prevent crime and serve the public, and we're not always using traditional strategies to do that," he explained.
He said he regularly gets letters from teachers saying that the recruits had an impact on their students.
"Clearly this has an impact that's difficult to measure, but it makes a difference," he said. "Our hope is that it gives the recruits a sensitivity to their job as more than just arresting individuals, but making relationships with the community."
Kalish gives the recruits guidance. And she doesn't shy away from pointing out how race factors into the experience. She ensures that black recruits are always assigned to classrooms because statistics show that minorities are among the largest populations in prisons who cannot read.
"This is not what you want to hear from a privileged white woman," she said, pointing to herself. "But I teach them about these statistics and about education so they realize how important their job is. ...We want them to work with these kids now so they don't see them later."
Despite having one hour a week for four months to work with the kids, Numi said she could tell it made a difference.
"What they need is confidence at this age," she said.
Numi asked the students to write letters to Calhoun and her fellow recruit at the end of the experience. "She made me feel good about being a reader," one wrote.
"I can't imagine what they're going to write about after today," Numi said.
At the academy, just south of police headquarters, Calhoun showed the students the physical fitness standards she must meet, including dragging a 150-pound manikin across the floor. They also got a glimpse of a driving simulator and watched as an instructor took Calhoun down in a defensive maneuver. "This is my classroom," she told them as they surveyed the nameplates on tables where recruits sit.
Moments later, the field trip ended with the big introduction to the chief. "Wow, that's a pretty strong handshake!" Isom told them as the line began to file past him. Calhoun smiled like a proud parent.
Copyright 2011 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
