"Retired cop honored for decade as teacher's aide," by Heather Knight, SF Chronicle. Feb, 9, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/10/BA1I1HHCTP.DTL&type=education
This a great story about a retired cop who has spend every school day, all day, for the past ten years as a volunteer at Cleveland Elementary in San Francisco. John Weidinger, or "Mr. John" as the students call him, retired after 27 years of police work and vowed to help kids avoid the problems he saw on the streets. He says the school has changed much since he attended in 1950. The school, then almost all white school, is now 70% Hispanic and almost 80% of the kids come from low-income homes. He admits discipline was stricter back in his day and the PTA was going strong. When nobody wanted to be president of the PTA, Weidinger agreed to take the job, even though he has no kids, and brought attendance form only 15 families to 95.
He came to some fame by finding a mention in the library of a time capsule buried 100 years ago at the school which he subsequently unearthed. This is a great story of commuinity service and giving back that is relevant to everybody who is interested in keeping schools and communities strong. It is really inspirational to see somebody take so seriously his civic and community duties, but no surprising. He has obviously made public service a lifetime commitment. Even though some of his friends say he's crazy and should be out traveling he seems content to hear his students call him "grandpa".
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