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entertainment | Talking music with singer-songwriter Whitney Ballen [11] crime watch | Redmond Police Blotter [13]
FRIDAY, october 26, 2012
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FEATURE | And the Miss Washington USA winner is ... Redmond’s Cassandra Searles [4] SPORTS | Redmond girls to take on Skyline for league soccer title [19]
Citizens glimpse into police officers’ world at academy Samantha Pak spak@redmond-reporter.com
Redmond police officer Dan Smith displays K9 techniques with Vader at Wednesday night’s Citizens’ Police Academy in Redmond. Courtesy of Alyse Young
As recently as two months ago, David Kemp’s opinion about law enforcement was less than flattering. The 14-year Redmond resident had had a few casual encounters with the police and said these gave him the impression that law enforcement officers were “overly cautious and standoffish.” “From the reporting I have heard over the years about police brutality and misuse of power, the high numbers of people incarcerated in the U.S., I thought they were all a bunch of gun-happy, peoplebashing bullies,” Kemp said. But now after about a month and a half
Evergreen’s principal takes to the roof for a day After encouraging students to raise $40K in magazine drive, they succeed and Cassidy works from above Samantha Pak spak@redmond-reporter.com
The day in the life of a school principal often consists of emails to fellow educators, signing off on various orders of school business, attending meetings, interacting with students and more. For Evergreen Middle School (EMS) principal Sean Cassidy, things were no different Wednesday except instead of conducting business from his office, he did his job from a place with high visibility. Literally. On Wednesday, Cassidy took to the school roof and worked there all day as a result of a challenge he threw out to his students. ng Session!
COLD FOR A CAUSE
To encourage and motivate them to
participate in the school’s annual magazine drive and fund-raiser, he told students that if they raised $40,000 he would work from the roof for a day. The students brought in $43,333 — almost twice as much as last year’s $24,000. “It was pretty substantial,” Cassidy said about the difference between this year and last year’s totals. The money raised will support the associated student body (ASB), which would pay for things such as sports uniforms, transportation costs for sports teams, school dances, assemblies, end-of-year parties and more. “ASB activities are one of the things you tend to remember year after year,” Cassidy said about the importance of funding activities that enrich students’ overall school experiences. True to his word, the new principal could be spotted on the school roof above one of the courtyards all day Wednesday — with the exception of about an hour during which Cassidy attended a meeting he claimed he couldn’t cancel or reschedule. He issued the challenge back in September in 70-degree weather, which made the [ more roof page 7 ]
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of attending the Redmond Police Department’s (RPD) Citizens’ Police Academy, he has a better idea of what officers do and why. The academy offers 10 weekly classes and gives the public a deeper look into the police department. From department history and ethics, to records and evidence, to the department’s traffic, SWAT and K-9 units, the academy covers a broad range of information. “I really had no idea how they were going to fill the time, but after the first three-hour scheduled session went over an hour and a half, I soon realized I didn’t understand half of what I thought I knew about what they did,” Kemp said about his initial expectations.
The RPD’s Citizens’ Police Academy began in the 1990s and ran for about a decade and a half before the department put it aside as they were not able to dedicate as much time to it as it deserved, said crime prevention officer Mike Dowd. But since its return last month, Dowd said things have been going well. Citizens must apply to participate in the academy and Dowd said they currently have about 20 students including neighborhood watch leaders, a City Council member, prospective RPD employee and representative from the Lake Washington School District. Participants also range in age from early 20s to mid 70s. [ more academy page 8 ]
Top: Evergreen Middle School principal Sean Cassidy lowers a bag on a rope filled with signed paperwork to a staff member in the courtyard below as he works from the school’s roof on Wednesday. Right, Cassidy surveys the scene from above. photos by samantha pak, Redmond Reporter
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