Chaos in front of the school.

Well, up the street a block or so.

The other day our school officer called the office because he was afraid we would get panic calls from parents because there was a major police presence just up the street from the school.

He wanted to tell us that there was nothing to worry about.  They had tried to serve a warrant on someone, who happened to ram a police car trying to get away.   Fortunately, the suspect didn’t get away, which was why there was nothing to worry about.

Seriously, Cop cars do not have comfortable back seats.

.... No, you will not see an article in the Tribune with a headline that starts with "Teacher gets caught..." and ends with "...student."

.... It's been a long time since I sat in the back seat of a cop car, over 32 years.  Let's just say that I wasn't a model teenager.  But I have avoided them my entire adult life, until tonight.

.... I worked at the Chevron tonight, and sometime around 5:30, I turned around from helping my co-worker find the right can of Skoal for a customer to see a guy in his 40's walking out the front door with a 30-pack of Busch Light.  I turned to my co-worker and asked if he had sold the guy the beer.  He said "no".  So I told him I'd be back in a second, walked out the back door, saw they guy crossing 2100 So at Douglas Street and yelled at him "Hey, did you pay for that beer?"  He turned towards me, turned back and just kept walking.  Fine.  So I head back into to the store, grab the wireless phone and call Salt Lake City Police.  As I'm talking to dispatch on the phone I head out the back door again and spot him walking down Douglas Street.  Dispatch is asking me where he was headed, and as I'm describing it to her, the guy ducks behind Sherwin-Williams and heads up the alley.  Still talking to dispatch, I walk up 2100 So and spot him through the car wash heading north down another alley.  I also notice he's not carrying the beer any longer, so I head over to the alley to see where he ditched it, no longer on the phone with dispatch.  As I'm headed over there a cop shows up and I tell him where the guy was headed and that he didn't have the beer with him anymore.  The cop takes off and I find the beer in the dumpster at Sherwin-Williams.  Of course I leave it there, 'cause I know when CSI shows up they're going to want the scene left alone.  Yeah, ok, what really happened was another cop showed up, I asked him if I should leave it there and he said they'd pick it up and bring it back to the store.   I get halfway back and the phone, in my back pocket now, rings and it's dispatch with an address for me to go to so I can identify the perp. (The guy they found, I just wanted to say 'perp').  I walk to the address, three cop cars are there and they already have the guy in cuffs.  I identify him, they get all my information and then ask how much the beer is worth.  Nope, "about" won't do.  They ask me to call the store and get them the actual price ($16.99, we don't count tax when dealing with theft.)  Um, sorry, can't, the store phone is in my back pocket.  So one of the cops drives me back to the store, with the beer, to get it's retail value. On the ride back, (in the uncomfortable back seat, which, by the way, the airconditioning doesn't get to) he told me that this guy has been arrested several times for beer theft. He leaves the beer with us, and my job is done.
.... My co-worker texted (yeah, I know I'm probably making up that word) the manager to let him know what happened before I could tell him to send him a text that just said "Steve was brought to the store in the back seat of a cop car."  Oh well, it's not a good idea to give your boss a heart attack.

Why I became a teacher...

I was going to post this anyway, but decided on the title in direct response to Paperback Writer's post titled "Not Why I Became A Teacher";

It's midterms so we're having a catch-up day in my UBSCT prep class. One of the assignments I'd given them was a couple of Sudoku's, and I caught one of them copying off a paper. I called him on it and started a discussion about copying, noticed there was no name on the paper he was copying and asked him who he had gotten the paper from. Fully expecting a slew of deflecting answers, I was surprised when he said he had found it on the floor. OK, I wasn't expecting that. Then, figuring I'd caught him in a lie, I asked "Then why didn't you just write your name on the paper?" In what I still think was a totally honest response he answered "Uh, that would be dishonest!" Adolescent logic still baffles me, and once again they've proven I can still be surprised.

Looking out the window 4th period today I saw a couple of cop cars parked side-by-side on the street across from the school. Cars would drive up behind them and they would just wave them around. Then, occasionally, they would flip on the sirens and take off after a car. I figured it was a speed trap and after a small disruption we continued with class. They were still there when shcool got out, and I noticed a cop sitting on a chair in front of the Seminary* right across from the cross walk. I wondered what he was doing, and why he had a couple guys hanging around him. I get to talking to one of the guys with the cop, he just crossed the street in front of a car, and found out it was a crosswalk sting. Utah law says you to yeild the right of way to anyone in a cross walk, even if they are on the opposite side of the street of your travel. Which is a good thing, because at least twice a week I almost get run down crissing to or from the school. The principal comes out on her way out, finds out what's going on and decides she wants to catch a car. So she walks towards the curb and waits for a car, steps out into the crosswalk and, awwwww, bummer, they stop for her. She crosses the street, goes over to talk to the cops and when her secretary (and afterwards other staff members) come out, she yells across the road to them to wait for a car. It becomes some kind of game - which staff member will catch the car? I had to go back in and take care of some stuff, but from what I heard the game only lasted another couple minutes.

* In Utah every high school, and any Jr. High that has 9th grade, has an LDS Seminary building across the street from it. The LDS Church offers religion classes for their members that go to that school, and for the most part the LDS students take those classes. Public Schools are not allowed to support religious classes, but we do give the students "release time" to go to Seminary classes. They get no credit for theses classes, we are not responsible for taking roll and cannot reprimand them if they sluff seminary class. As far as the public school is concerned they are just released from being at school, and we're not responsible for whatever they do during that time. Seminary buildings are always across the street from the school, on private property, and completely funded by the LDS Church.