For obvious reasons, I am generally not supportive of groups that take over the duties of others without authority. Citizen crime watch groups are fine, as long as they stay within the confines of "watching" and stay away from "pretending to be police." See something, say something, that's fine.
And of course, how about the plangent cries of untrained moms and dads hollering about what should be taught to Junior and Sis and how they shouldn't have Critical Race Theory in their classrooms (they will learn it, but only if they are in graduate school) and how awful certain books are. Listen up! If you are qualified to set curriculum standards for a public school system, you probably have a job doing so. If you aren't, please step aside for the people who know what to do. Your comments are appreciated; your attempts to turn them into orders are not.
Of course, the same thing applies to those who have so much to say about public health standards. Are you a doctor or an epidemiologist? No? Well, does the doctor come where you work and tell you how to do it?
But there are exceptions, and here is one from Shreveport, Louisiana. There were many fights going on at Southwood High School down there. 23 students were arrested in a three-day period.
Some dads knew what to do, so they formed Dads On Duty. There are 40 of these guys who take turns being in the school to greet students as they arrive for the day (the sort of thing that makes a kid feel like a person, not a barcode) and they work to keep the atmosphere positive for the young people.
And, since they started all this last month, there have been zero arrests. In fact, not even an untoward incident has occurred.
No, these Dads aren't guys with experience in counseling or law enforcement. They are guys with experience in being real, and surviving in the very neighborhood where their kids live and study and will likely live in the future.
"We're dads. We decided the best people who can take care of our kids are who? Are us," says Michael LaFitte, from whose idea Dads on Duty sprang.
The school halls are filled with positive vibes now.
"I immediately felt a form of safety," one of the students said. "We stopped fighting; people started going to class."
And here's the key, and why I say this is an exception: These Dads are not strutting around in fake police uniforms and acting like Rambo. They don't have any weapons except for the one that has been working since Moses gave the side-eye to Gershom and Eliezer: The Dad Look.
"You ever heard of 'a look'?" is how one student put it, describing the power all Dads have.
The Dads give the looks and the stares and the occasional stern warning AND some Dad jokes.
I'll bet they tell the one where a skeleton walks into a bar and orders a beer and a mop!
"They hate it! They're so embarrassed by it," is how LaFitte describes the student response to the bad jokes.
People down at Southwood say these men have hit the right mix of a little tough love and a lot of banter and that's why the school has turned things around.
"The school has just been happy — and you can feel it," one student said. Which is why the Dads plan to keep showing up.
"Not everybody has a father figure at home – or a male, period, in their life. So just to be here makes a big difference," they said.
It's a matter of showing up!
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