Books & Badges Unites Officers, Students in Love of Reading

Claremont School students listened to stories about bats, spiders and other topics, and asked police officers probing questions about their profession during a recent session of the new Books & Badges partnership with the Ossining Police Department.

In Michael Mery’s fourth-grade class, Officer Peter Ryzy read “What Do You Do with a Problem?” by Kobi Yamada. The boy in the book finds that the more he avoids his problem, the worse it seems to get.

Officer Ryzy told students that they can ask a police officer, a counselor or someone else to help with a problem. “You have to face the problems. You have to learn from the problems,” he said. “The only thing that scares you about a problem is the fear itself. The best way to deal with it is to step up to it.”

The children had many questions for the officer. “How much do you get paid?” and “Why do people commit crimes?” were a few. They also asked about the law enforcement equipment on his belt.

Claremont enrichment teacher Micki Lockwood suggested starting the program. With the support of the district administration, she and Megan Mastrogiacomo, Ossining’s community schools leader and A.C.T.I.O.N. Committee chair, joined forces with Ossining Police Chief Kevin Sylvester to create Books & Badges. A.C.T.I.O.N. – Acting Conscientiously to Ignite Opportunity Now – is a group of district staff, parents and community organizations that strives to meet the needs of local children and families and promote literacy.

“The Ossining Police Department and Ossining schools have a very special relationship,” Ms. Lockwood said. “We are partners in the ‘Ossining Loves to Read’ mission.”

The Police Department is a strong supporter of “Ossining Love to Read” and stocks a book shelf in its lobby. The department also helps promote the “Ossining Basics” initiative to help prepare the youngest children for school, Superintendent Raymond Sanchez said. “Books & Badges furthers our important partnership, which fosters a love of reading as well as an understanding that police officers help and serve everyone in the community,” he said.

Patrol officers visited Claremont on two days in November. They are scheduled to return several times in December and January, and toward the end of the school year.

“Our department has a great relationship with the Ossining School District and we’re always excited to participate in educational activities,” Chief Sylvester said. “Books & Badges is an opportunity for our officers to spend time in a classroom setting connecting with our students, promoting literacy and, all the while, normalizing the presence of our officers in our schools.”

Officer Marvise Rennalls read “Stellaluna” by Cannon Janell to third-graders on one of the November visits. Connor Tompkins, the school resource officer at Ossining High School, read Mary Howitt’s “The Spider and the Fly” to another third-grade class.

Officer Tompkins told the children that he attended school in Ossining. He went to college to be a physical education teacher and taught for a few years before joining the department in 2015.

Michael Romero, who was in the class Officer Tompkins read to, said his father thinks he should be a police officer when he grows up. “I need to go to school and stay out of trouble,” he said, echoing the officer’s advice. “I even want to join the U.S. Army.”

Officer Rennalls got a lot of questions about bats and rabies after reading “Stellaluna,” which is about a bat that gets taken in by a family of birds. One student said that bats don’t live in Ossining, but the officer said that’s not true – she had two calls about bats.

“There was a bat in the house and they thought the police could do something about it,” she said. “All we can do is open the window so they can fly out. Otherwise they’ll cower in the corner.”

She reassured the children that bats eat fruit and not people.

“I don’t really believe in vampires, but I do believe in bats,” said student Heidi Palaquibay. “I’ve never seen a bat. I would like to know more about bats.”