Shortcut to License to Kill

Why is training to become a teacher much more strenuous than a police officer's?

Yesterday’s day of rehab included the phrase, “Chili Shake.” As in my brother made some chili and asked if he wanted to throw it in some new fancy blender I own.

I’m still kind of disgusted in how quick I drank a bowl of chili. I guess that’s the name of the game for the foreseeable future on account of my inability to drive a car.

At least I can take solace in having correct opinions about City Council. After a month of tweeting how much they agree with protestors, the council failed its first dawg check since protests erupted in late May.

From Bill Bush of dispatch.com:

A divided council passed the police division’s $125,000 purchase, through a federal grant, of two electronic vehicle license-plate readers to be strategically placed to work in conjunction with the city’s electronic-gunshot-detection systems. The units would activate in order to record cars potentially fleeing from shooting scenes.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown grilled police Chief Thomas Quinlan over how the department would use the devices to make decisions over stopping the cars of citizens who happen to drive past the units at the wrong times.

Quinlan said the devices wouldn’t be used in a vacuum, but with other information, such as witness descriptions of vehicles used in crimes, to give detectives more to go on in narrowing down vehicles of interest.

I didn’t even know it was possible for the City Council to vote in a divided manner. I also wish they had updated the City Council website with tonight’s minutes so I could see which of my local representatives are still dumb enough to take a guy like Chief Quinlan at his word. The man has lied about way more mundane things in the last month! Why would anyone trust him now?

Today is a special day, as it’s the first time I’m publishing someone’s words that were directly submitted to me.

They belong to Clayton Adams, Bethany Cole and Lindsey Bryan — three members of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers who all work within Columbus Public Schools. I met Clayton as a fellow Statehouse candidate in 2018 and admired his campaign from afar as he too ran in a Republican-gerrymandered district.

Clayton and his three colleagues write today with a public policy idea that would go a long way in curbing police violence.

PROFESSIONAL LICENSING SHOULD BE A REQUIREMENT FOR POLICE OFFICERS

By Clayton Adams, Bethany Cole and Lindsey Bryan

On June 2 2020, during Governor DeWine's press conference, he spoke about creating licensing for police officers like they would for a doctor, nurse, teacher or social worker.

Governor DeWine also mentioned there would be an independent review board to review and take action in disciplinary cases for officers. Obtaining professional licensing is common in many different careers and it should be standard practice for police.

As educators, we considered the amount of professional development and training we must complete in order to remain employed and compared it to police officers. It’s disturbing that licensing, renewal of said license, as well as professional development is not common practice within a profession of high expectations.

Additionally, law enforcement is a profession that is 100% funded by the taxpayer. High expectations should be in place in order to ensure our taxpayer dollars are employing the best possible officers. 

While we are experts on the protocols in place regarding educational requirements, we are not claiming to be experts on the requirements of police. However, we do know one thing for sure: what is in place is not enough.

As a teacher in the state of Ohio, we are required to get a bachelor’s degree.

Here in our own city, the University of Cincinnati requires all education students to take a racial awareness class; understanding racial awareness should be absolutely required for everyone who works in a public capacity, particularly a job that is funded by the taxpayer.

In addition to a bachelor’s degree, educators must pass four state licensure exams just to apply for our initial teaching license. Once the initial teaching license is obtained in Ohio, teachers are enrolled into a resident educator program and assigned a mentor teacher to help them navigate their first few years within the profession.

This program consists of working with a mentor for 3 years to check in, set goals, show proof of our performances, recording ourselves teaching, completing a summative assessment and then having the state decide if they want to FINALLY give us our professional teaching license.

This is all while being expected to take part in multiple professional developments at the building and district levels. On top of our actual job: Teaching.

Assuming the Ohio Department of Education decides we are worthy enough of our professional teaching license four years in, here is what goes into keeping that license:

• Every year we are evaluated by administration multiple times depending on how we performed the previous year on said evaluations.

• We score anywhere from ineffective to accomplished and protocols are put in place if need be, depending on how much support you do or do not need.

This may mean we are evaluated more, we have to take more professional development, etc. After our five-year professional license expires, we have to renew it.

Our renewal is dependent on those yearly evaluations, our teacher ratings, and successful completion of 180 continuing education contact hours (18 CEUs) which is equivalent to six semester hours of college level coursework.

Having a license in our profession ensures teachers are always up-to-date on the ever-changing profession and that we are using best practices to teach our students. 

Although we acknowledge that there are still teachers out there who may need extra support and observation, there is some comfort knowing these procedures are put in place and expectations are high at the state, district and building levels. 

If teachers have to be licensed and very regularly evaluated, so should police officers. The more interaction a profession has with the people in our society on any level, the higher the expectations should be for ongoing training and proof of high and equitable performances.

Let’s not ignore the fact that the education system is also an oppressive system in many ways and that there could be tons of reform there as well. However, the protocols in place to make sure that teachers are adhering to expectations currently in place are there and are being followed.

Our country’s criminal justice system needs to be reexamined on every level. This is what people mean when they talk about oppressive systems in place that need to be dismantled, re-evaluated and reformed.

People who are in such important professions in our society need to be effectively trained and held accountable to the highest degree if they’re going to be expected to serve our society in a positive aspect. 

THOSE WMDs. Anatomy of a car crash… How to do more push-ups in just two weeks… In defense of the above ground pool… The biggest wastes of time we regret when we get older… How St. Louis’ privatized streets led to a gun-brandishing coupl