b"You really were a citizen by then?Yeah, but I wasnt sworn in yet.Did you attend union meetings, rallies?No, but most of the time, I got all the information that I need from my shop steward. And whenever I go to theunion, I more frequent want to know what the union is doing, what the union going to have and whatever.What was a typical day on the job for you as a school safety officer? On a typical day, I arrive at my job at the school half an hour or 45 minutes before my start time. I start at seven oclock; I get there by 6:15, I got my coffee, I get dressed, Im ready. Before I enter the building, I pray to my God. I ask Himfor safety. I ask him for guidance to this day and guide everybody that is in my school and I hope for prosperity for every-body. That was my prayer every day. Then after that, I stand at the door and I greet everyone that comes in. I have teachersthat come in; I say, Good morning. They don't say a word. Kids there [ask], Why you always saying good morning?I say, Well, it's a nice day. Eventually, they get the message. I remember one time saying to a teacher: Every morning I see you and I say good morning to you and you never say a word to me. I say to myself, Y'all look down at school safetyagents. we don't have college degrees and you got all this education. They call me, Take this kid over there. [I] say,Write it up. Give me something to take down to the office. Once the teacher and the student write it up, I take them bothdown. I got to be fair. I look around the school and keep watch until dismissal. My time goes fast. At Thomas Jefferson which had over 3000 students, I was first at the back door post making sure no one went out. I look at the group leader and say: Listen up. I think you should put me somewhere that I could be of use, not just sittingup here watching doors. He says: Okay, let me try you out at the main door. That's the best thing he ever did for me.Everybody loved me when I was at the door. At that time, we didn't have uniforms. I made myself my uniform. I got ashirt, put on a tie and I was sharp, well dressed. When you came into school, you sawauthority. I didn't sit, I stood. Yougot to look physically ready to do your work and my time used to go so fast. When I was leaving, I thanked the Lord, beautiful day, had a safe day for the students and everybody. In that nine years that I was at Thomas Jefferson, I had nomajor incident, no major stuff. When I got to Sterling High School, there was all kinds of chaos,stabbings, shootings.When I become a group leader, I didn't have a fixed post. I go out all over the placeand made sure that the officers arewhere they are supposed to be and so forth.You were supervising the other officers. What was that like?Yeah, supervising to make sure everything goes right. The way I approached it was just letting them know that I'm in this area if they need me. I greet everybody and do my job. At Thomas Jefferson, I supervised 21 officers. They tried toreduce the number of officers. They had this idea: Oh we going to put cameras in the building. When they put the camera in the building, they took away four or five officers. [They say]: The camera will do the job. Cameras are not goingto do the job. These kids want to go out through this door, they take their shirt, throw it up there, camera blurs, 10, 15 outof school. To me, supervision meant treating your officers fairly. I let them know your expertise is not the same as his, not thesame as mine. Everyone has a different type of approach to different people. If you're having a problem with this student,147 "