Friendswood High School Student Resource Officer (SRO) Jason Ives sat down with us to discuss how he works to keep students safe and establish positive relationships with students and staff. This man has a heart of gold!
Friendswood High School Student Resource Officer (SRO) Jason Ives sat down with us to discuss how he works to keep students safe and establish positive relationships with students and staff. This man has a heart of gold!
Speaker 1 The Astros game. So are you a baseball player? Speaker 2 Very big. Okay. Speaker 1 So you're in support of the Astros? Speaker 2 Very much so. Speaker 1 How did you feel about when it was the Astros? I mean, when it was the Guardians of the Yankees, were you like wanting the Yankees to win so we could play the Yankees or. Speaker 2 Yes, I wanted to do they want us? I want I want to put them back in New York where they belong. Speaker 1 So I was so worried because and it doesn't sound like I'm pro Astros when I say this, but I was really worried because I only want to play the Yankees if we beat the Yankees. But if we lose to the Yankees, I would be so upset compared to four years to the Guardians, you know what I'm saying? Speaker 2 I fully agree. Speaker 1 The Yankees just did it. Speaker 3 I know. I know, son. Dana. So my husband is a massive Astros fan. And we were watching this show last night called the Watcher. And there was a scene where someone says, you know, New York City is going to be underwater in five years. And Sean, like, he didn't even miss a beat. He says it's going to be much sooner than now after we went there. Speaker 3 But from all the tears, they're going to be crying. Speaker 2 That's awesome. That is fantastic. Oh, family were all Astros fans. I actually worked for the Astros for 14 years before getting into law enforcement. Speaker 1 So what did you do? Speaker 2 I did the scoreboard. Speaker 1 The oh. Speaker 2 Basically the electronic scoreboard and the pitch type in the database and all that. So I did that for them for 14 years. So I got to see Biggio and Bagwell. Oh, Greg and us go to the playoffs. Speaker 1 And so are you a stats kind of guy do you So you enjoy all the numbers part of it? Speaker 2 Yes. Oh, definitely. Speaker 1 That's interesting. Yeah. Speaker 3 And I'm thinking about, you know, all time, you know, he does the the graphics and the games. That's so cool. Speaker 2 So I think he might have got in right after I got out there because I don't I don't remember seeing him in the, in the actual scoreboard area when we were doing that, but it was there was many a night that it was good times and there was a lot of tears. Oh my God, watch that. Speaker 1 So did you get a ring like Ali's gotten a ring? Speaker 2 Oh, I missed out on that one. Speaker 1 Oh, you didn't know that. Speaker 2 So in 2006, when I got hired on with Friendswood, is when I had to quit working for the Astros. Oh, okay. So you just work an evening shift and working Astro games at night. Just didn't add up. Speaker 1 Right? Right. Um, well, good. Well, so today we want to spend some time talking about safety. And who better to do that with an officer IVs, our SRO, which is a that has student resource officer at Friendswood High School. So welcome. Glad you're here. Speaker 2 Thank you, ma'am. It's my pleasure. Speaker 1 Good, Good deal. We just started off talking about some Astros, and I have another Astros question form at the end of this podcast. But, you know, one of the interesting things whenever you talk about I read recently, actually, that whenever you talk to parents and ask parents about what is one topic that you're concerned about when it comes to school in your children and safety. Speaker 1 Safety is one of the very first things that comes up, obviously. What is it that you think, Officer Ives? What is it that you think makes for a safe school? Speaker 2 I think the main thing is for safe school is to be completely open to see what's going on around us and it can't be just based on what's actually going on in the school. It has to be going on with society. It has to be going on social media, it has to be up front everywhere. There has to be a look at what is these kids, what are the kids looking at? Speaker 2 What are going on in people's lives, Because that can always infiltrate into the school one way or another. So intelligence, gaining intelligence being open to talk to people, to actually be there, listening to them is one of the main things. Speaker 1 I know that is is talked about in the past. As far as FISA, we talked about safety being a layered approach. You know, there's so many there's not just one thing that makes necessarily a safe school that's kind of like what you were talking about, but having secure facilities, police officers, safety personnel, we have to see something, say something, reporting character, education, social, emotional health of our students, family life, all of those things kind of come into play. Speaker 1 You know, when it comes down to how safe is your school, which are, you know, is what you were talking about. So there's just so complicated and so complex. Speaker 2 It is. And it's it's it's a it's a web, you know, one piece of the web to be touched. And it's going to be felt throughout the whole entire area. If it's going to be a situation at a home, how is that kid going to react to it? How is the parents going to react to it? How a society going to react to it? Speaker 2 And that's going to infiltrate into our schools? And how is that going to actually make the other kids their friends feel and they could feed off each other? And as long as we're able to discuss things with them, be there for them. Understand that there is a resource here, be it the administration, be it counselors, be it teachers, be it the sorrows, that there is somebody that's willing to listen and step up for them and see what we can do to help them. Speaker 3 And last year, it was actually my my favorite video that I did all year. But we did something for a presentation, I think given maybe the state level about the partnership between you guys as our OES, APS and counselors and just that the impact that that's been able to have on on students, you and I speak a little bit more sure to that relationship. Speaker 2 It's really getting involved in finding out what are these kids going through. And one of the first things I tell them as we were all your age once, might not be living in your life right now, but there were things that we went through and we understand there's hardships and there's happiness and there's excitement and there's there's things that do bring you down. Speaker 2 But where do you fit in? In sometimes talking to a student or a kid or just a child and just, I'm on your side. Why don't you just let me have a little idea of what's going on in your mind? What are you seeing there? And then understand that I've been there to a certain degree. Let me try to help you with some of the things that I've been able to do to help out myself or another student or a friend of mine, something from experience. Speaker 2 And that that was one of the things that I saw in that student for those four years where it seemed like he was always trying to fit in because he didn't know how to. And once he understood, You don't have to do that, you don't have to be someone you're not understand, People are here to help you to hear you listen to you. Speaker 2 Great first, mon, whatever. We're here to cheer you on and push you through. And we can do that. But you got to be yourself. Speaker 3 And I think one of the coolest things that came out of that story was just, you know, having some struggles initially early on in high school, but then finishing high school, actually saying, really because of you, he wants to pursue a career in law enforcement. Yeah, it's amazing. Speaker 1 I mean, it's pretty cool. That is very awesome. I can imagine. You know, we see we see something. Say something. Kids might come forward and say, hey, we've seen things that are concerning that we think you need to look into. That seems natural to me How often as a police officer or an SRO at Friends, what high school do you see a student come forward and say, I'm concerned about myself, I'm concerned about the things that I'm thinking or that I'm involved in, and I need help? Speaker 1 I mean, does that happen? Speaker 2 I see it more when they come to a counselor before they come to an SRO, I think is when they see the uniform, they see the badge. They think it's well, it's strictly black and white. Here's the law and I've broken the law, or I'm doing something that might be looked at is bad in the eyes of the law. Speaker 2 They don't realize that. Again, we've been there, We've done that. We bleed red. I let me see what I can do to help you out on this. I know you're struggling, but I understand. You know, I've we when I was in patrol, we actually had a we would talk to new officers and I was one of the photos of field training officer. Speaker 2 And we would have a a statement which said in the car stays in the car. And that's kind of the thing that I have with some of these students. Now, if you want to come to my office which sit in there, you can stay in there. If you have frustrations and you don't know how to blow that off. Speaker 2 Anger, frustration, mad, upset, emotional, you can come in here and it's a safe area to do that. And I can listen and I can if you want me to help you out and I'll do that. But if not, you just want me to listen to you. I can do that as well, as long as it's you can walk out of that office feeling a little bit of that pressure off your chest and off your shoulders. Speaker 2 We're doing all right then. Speaker 3 So do you feel like. I feel like sometimes people see someone in uniform and that's intimidating. So how do you how do you try to make yourself maybe less intimidating, to be more approachable for those students? Speaker 2 It helped me when I was doing the DARE program with some of these students, we had an interaction. Now it's been about five years since I did it. So some of that is been it's it's they don't recognize that as much. But joking around with them, a fist bump, a handshake, you know, tell them their shoes untied when it when it's not just in the classic. Speaker 2 Exactly. It's something that they don't expect. Speaker 1 Right. Speaker 2 Walking around the cafeteria and just, you know, hey, how are you doing today? You know, what really am for lunch? And then when you ask them for what you're having for lunch, it they give you an answer. Oh, man, that's no good. You need to try squid. You know something? It just comes right off and they're like, How the heck did he just say? Speaker 2 And then you can kind of go into more of a discussion with them or joking around with them and they kind of feel a little bit more at ease. Speaker 1 You know, I never thought about the DARE program. You know, to me, the DARE program was just about how drugs can mess up your life and, you know, say no kind of you know, I never thought about that. Gave you an insight, though, to so many students because it gave you time to make connections and develop relationships so that there was a. Speaker 2 Lot of connections to make in discussions that we could have. We would open up excuse me, the the initial part of the class, especially in the elementary school, they would ask they would write down questions and put in what they call the deer box. And I'd pull out three of them and I would tell them from the very beginning, don't put in a question there that you wouldn't want to answer it yourself. Speaker 2 So that got to get got rid of some of the crazy questions and all that. But there was a lot of questions that kind of would come personal. They would, excuse me, present a a question that they're going through and ask, How would you handle that coming from a fifth grader? That's that's pretty amazing. Wow. Yeah. But then, you know, once you start discussing stuff like that as well as, you know, what your favorite color and have you ever been shot and have you ever shot somebody? Speaker 1 That's what I would think would be the first question. Speaker 2 All the other questions like that, you know, you use that as a way to start opening up some lines of communication with them. Use a little humor, use something that's off the wall, and then they can feel a little bit more comfortable with it. In I still have kids today that, you know, will come up to me and ask me about my wife's Chihuahua, because we would I would tell them how much that is not a dog, it's a rat. Speaker 2 And we would go from there. But. Right. They would ask about that still five years, six years later. Speaker 1 Remember that? Speaker 2 They do remember that. And that's that can lead into more of a conversation. Speaker 1 So you started talking about you would work for the Astros and then you became a police officer. Tell us about how did you decide to get into the police force? Speaker 2 I, I always wanted to get into something like that. When I was graduated from high school, they approached my dad about joining the Marine Corps and he basically said, you go get your education first, then you can go in. When you go in, then you can be an officer and you can make those decisions. My decision was I want to listen to I want to serve my country. Speaker 2 And this wouldn't do it. Just before graduating from college, I met the met my wife, and that did not it wasn't going to happen. Speaker 3 To do it. Speaker 2 The Marine Corps was out of the question. And once we made that decision, she knew where my heart lied in wanting to serve our community. And in that I worked for seven years in a totally different industry with that working for the Astros. But then it just got to a point where she asked me, You're not happy, What's it going to take? Speaker 2 And I said, I've always wanted to do law enforcement. I got to do something for my community. So she gave me two options. She gave me paralegal a word, and luckily Friendswood was hiring. Speaker 1 Awesome. Where did that come from? Like, what made you why do you think you always wanted to be a police officer? Speaker 2 This I look at the community is in kind of this country. This country is wonderful. You don't get there's nowhere else in the world like this. And as much as I wanted to find it on the outside, I also know it needs to be defended on the inside. I grew up the oldest of four. I had three younger sisters. Speaker 2 My dad always worked and he said, You need to watch out for them. You need to defend them, you need to be there for them. And that kind of led into, you know, why can't I do this for my community itself, I always wanted to fight for the underdog. I can't stand bullies. And so how else can I do this? Speaker 2 And I looked at, you know, there's who's going to be the one who wants to run into that building when you got all sorts of stuff going on, you don't know until you actually do. And that's when I was like, I've I've just got to try this. I've got to give it a shot. Speaker 1 I feel like over the last five years it may you may feel like it's longer than five years, but that people have been it's become anti-police. How does that I can't imagine being in a profession already. Yeah, that doesn't seem to always be supported. But then just to have this clear, obvious attack against a certain profession and you're talking police officers. Speaker 3 People who are protecting. Speaker 1 Yes. The one. Yes, yes. Yeah, Yeah. It baffles me. It blows my mind. Speaker 2 It wears on your psyche. Speaker 1 I would think so. Speaker 2 But then you also look to your left and your right and you see the others that are going to provide that protection to the community and know that what we're doing is righteous, we're doing is to protect those who who need it. Yeah, people don't like getting pulled over for speeding. Understand that? That's why we don't always write tickets, we give warnings. Speaker 2 We want the compliance to the law because it keeps everybody safe. And sometimes you have those that really don't care about that. And that's just that's just natural. You're going to have those are going to go against it. You're going to go have those that protect it. You're going to have those that support it. And so we're very fortunate that we have a community like we do that actually supports us. Speaker 2 He's behind us. Speaker 1 So I'm going to ask you some kind of strange questions here, but. Speaker 3 I got that devious smile. Speaker 1 Not go down a rabbit hole here, But so I've seen several videos recently about police officers struggling with someone on the street. And then you have other citizens wanting to step in and help. That would still be me if I ever drove past a police officer struggling like I'm amazed at the number of people who do not step in when they should step in. Speaker 3 And. Speaker 1 Help help out or just. Yeah, right. The police officers want help or is that something that you I understand, is probably wanting to try to control that yourself. But is that something that you're wanting people to step in and help? If you're that a silly question? Speaker 2 It's a silly question. You know, I think it really depends on the individual officer and depending on what the situation actually is, there are times that you're going to run into people that are going to resist, they're going to fight, they're going to do this. And we try to do the best we can to take them into custody without hurting them. Speaker 2 When you get another person involved in that now we're having to worry about their safety as well. And what if we're in the process of taking that person in custody without them getting hurt and all of a sudden another individual charges in and actually causes an injury and it doesn't look good. So it is it is a very difficult thing to to to judge and to actually say I'm going to say if you know, we're in an intense fight, those fights can only last for a few minutes. Speaker 2 But that's a long few minutes. And any citizen that wants to help try to pull this person into custody so that we can actually make it a peaceful resolution, I welcome that. Speaker 1 Yeah, that makes sense. I'm sure it always depends on the situation. Speaker 3 Now, when people are just pulled over on the side of the road, don't don't start pulling over. Speaker 2 Do exactly everything. Okay. Speaker 1 You can you imagine people just always tried to step in and it's like, just keep moving. Lady. So what has been your experience? First of all, how many years have you been in SRO at Friendswood High School? Speaker 2 This is my fifth year. Speaker 1 Fifth year. Okay. What is what has been your experience? Are you do you miss being on the street? Do you love being inside with the students? Tell us about it. Speaker 2 I think it's it's pretty much equal. I do miss doing the streets. It's it's fun being out there talking to people, dealing with people, helping people that way in our society. But the same thing when you get into the high school or even in the junior high, any of the schools, it's its own little city. And there are issues going on all over the place, things that you don't realize. Speaker 2 But like I said earlier, kids dealing with things that they're having to deal with and you can actually be an asset to them. But at the same time, there's some there are some crimes that do occur and that we have to take care of. You want to be an asset to the kids as well as the administration and to the teachers and and also educate them. Speaker 2 There's a lot of times you can talk to children or to students and let them understand, you know, the the the rule that's in school about not touching somebody. Well, it's very similar to what we have and outside of school. And that's for an assault. So it does it has is it has its moments, but it does feel like its own little city. Speaker 1 What what do you see? Have you seen a change in students? What do you see students biggest struggle is right now. Have you seen a difference since COVID? You know, statistically, they say even on in the outside world, outside of school, which of course would impact students inside school, is just the rise of alcohol and drug use and depression. Speaker 1 Are you seeing that in schools? Have you always seen that in schools? Tell us what you're seeing now. Speaker 2 I see it more in the high school than I did before. You know, working the streets, being on patrol. You do deal with juveniles and other individual and young kids that are dealing with some of that stuff. And it could be from the home, it could be from their peer groups and all that. When you see it in the school that it's a little bit more because now they are around more, they're their peers. Speaker 2 They can get influenced more by what they're hearing from others social media talking with each other. Sometimes you think, are they really feeling this or this? This is one of those things that just to be a part of it, just to feel like they're a part of this group that's getting the attention. This is what I'm going to do. Speaker 2 You want to discuss that with them and find out what the real what the real deal is. Do they really have an issue with nicotine from the vapes, nicotine from tobacco, or are they having trouble with alcohol? They don't realize the addictiveness to this. And then you try to get into their mind and at least talk with and try to maybe go from there and see whatever kind of help we can give them. Speaker 1 What do you what's one thing you want students to know? Speaker 2 There is people out there that are willing to help. You've got to be able to be yourself and allow that help to happen. Speaker 1 Yeah, I you know, it's one of those things with students. I think it's and I think maybe it's just people in general, you know, it's hard to, I guess, recognize and admit that you have a problem and then to go to an authority figure or, you know, someone that you hope people want to be liked in general, people don't want to be looked down upon. Speaker 1 And so to to reach out to someone, an adult, really, and say, I need help, I can imagine that would be, you know, hard. But I agree with you. Kids need to realize that's what adults have to do all the time. Speaker 2 All the time. There's it doesn't matter the age. It doesn't matter how big and strong or how experienced you are. Everyone's going to need assistance at some point. We're all going through something. It could be a family life. It could be socially, it could be at work. It doesn't matter. But you got to find some way to have a healthy outlet. Speaker 2 And that's kind of one of the things that when I talk to kids, especially in the office or in the hallway, What is your outlet? I know you're struggling. What do you like to do, like to work out? Do you like to play games or do you like to draw? Do you like to listen to music? Let's make it a healthy thing versus turning to a substance that really is not helping you. Speaker 2 It's just taking away from reality. Speaker 1 For that moment. And then you're back exactly right. Along those same lines, what do you what do you want parents to know? Speaker 2 I want them to know that continue to love your children. Continue to listen to them, continue to be there for them. And if you need assistance, find it. There's nothing wrong with looking for help when you don't know how to handle it. We all don't have the answers, but there's so many different people out there that have different experiences or expertise that they can actually assist you in one way or another. Speaker 2 Never give up. There's some way to do this. Speaker 1 Yeah. And as an educator, I'm a big believer also in, you know it the old saying it takes a village, but the only way we can help, whether it's a student or a parent, the only way we can help is one if we know about it right. So many times as a teacher, you know, a parent, a kid would be failing and call home, start talking to the parents, and parents would say, let me explain what's happening in our home. Speaker 1 It's like, if I would have known that at least you can become sensitive to it and see it and be like, well, I know these things are going on in the home. And so that's why I'm starting to see school isn't a priority when you're just trying to survive at home. You know, you have a lot of stuff going on. Speaker 1 So I agree with you that it's important that kids and parents reach out to the school to say this is kind of what we're struggling with. We just want you to know about it. Not that you can always do anything about it, but at least you know when you're aware and you can help in some sort of way. Speaker 2 Right. And there's different avenues that we can take to try to help them, either through the school or through the police department, that it doesn't have to involve getting a law enforcement official in there. But it could be through a sponsor or a community activity or, you know, something that we can actually there's there's so many things out there and people have different views or different connections that we can bring them together. Speaker 1 I know as an SRO, I'm sure you go through a battery of like you have to test your gun or you have to. I'm not exactly sure what you have to do to prove yourself every month or is there training that you go through for counseling for social, emotional, helping students and working with students? Speaker 2 Yes, ma'am. Speaker 1 Okay. Speaker 2 There's there's all sorts of training that we have to go through. Okay. There are certain classes that are set aside for SRO those and they're mandated by the state that we actually go through. And then the also the officer himself needs to look in and look for those classes to develop himself better to handle some of these situations. Speaker 2 Nobody's perfect. Nobody's going to be 100% an expert in everything, or at least in one little thing. But you still can continue to educate yourself or find different ways and different avenues to strengthen those so that you are better. Speaker 1 So then you can better serve your students and your teachers. Do you have teachers that come to you that are concerned about someone that you know they kind of get you involved with to say, I'm seeing some things here that I'm worried about or. Speaker 2 Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Yes, we've I tried to reach out to a lot of the teachers and especially in some of the classes over at the high school, just walking the halls, talking to them. And if they do have a concern, they can either quickly stop me in the hall, which they've done, or even tell them, here's my email address, give me a little bit more information and we'll go from there. Speaker 2 Let me do some research on what we can, what I can find out, and see where we can go from there. So there's they're willing to reach out. Sometimes I think they just need to see that person in Oh yeah, And remember, this kid was struggling. Let me go tell them because again, you're dealing with classes five, six classes of 25 to 30 students, and sometimes you just don't have the time. Speaker 2 Oh, sure. It just skips your mind. But if you do have somebody that's right there. Oh, I remember that. Let me let them know. Speaker 1 So if you have a student you had talked about Kelsey earlier, the video that you made of that one student that you had impacted his life and you wanted to become a police officer. If you have students out, if we have students out there listening to this podcast that are interested in becoming a police officer, what would you suggest? Speaker 1 Like, what is what is a kid need to do to prepare to become a police officer? Speaker 2 I think the main thing that they need to do is accept that it is a life change, it is a calling, and then from there, how are you going to get there? And the way you're going to have to do that is through leadership. You're going to have to be able to lead yourself. You're going to have to be able to make the grades. Speaker 2 You going to prove to yourself that you're not willing to give up because a community is going to allow you to give up once you can start doing that. And even though you deal with difficult classes or you deal with difficult students or you deal with difficult teachers, how are you going to adapt and overcome? And it has to be in a positive way because once you start getting into law enforcement, especially in our city, our background investigation is very detailed, is very thorough. Speaker 2 We want the right person in that position. And I think that's what society needs these days, is the right person in this position in law enforcement. We can't have anybody that's that's willing to think that they are ten foot tall and bulletproof and that they can do anything. You've got to be a servant to the community and you've got to be able to protect and enforce the law. Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, that's one of the characteristics I would think that would be stand out is, all right, are you wanting to serve? Are you wanting to serve your community? What would be another characteristic that you think a girl or boy should have to be a good police officer? Speaker 2 One of the main things they've got to have courage. If there is a person who is in law enforcement today and they say and they say they're not scared, they're lying, there's at any moment the number one thing you want to do is go home and excuse me, at any point it can be taken from you just driving the car in an accident or God forbid, having an active shooter or a situation like that. Speaker 2 You've got to be able to make quick decisions. You've got to make right decisions. You've got to constantly be thinking of those kind of decisions at all times. But you've got to be able to know you are moral. You it's okay to be scared, but you've got to do this for those people that are waiting on you. Mm hmm. Speaker 2 That was one of the main things. And if anybody looks at the videos on it, you've already they see that those officers were scared. You can't do that. There's too many lives are at stake. You've got to go in there and you've got to do the job. Speaker 1 And that's courage, right? I mean, courage isn't the absence of fear. It's being afraid, but going in anyway. Right? So, yeah, you've already you could be an entire other podcast, you know, talking about and I hate in any situation, it's so easy to look back. I know they did some obvious things incorrectly, but it's always easy to look back and go, Oh, this is what we would have done. Speaker 1 You know, I cannot imagine having to run towards firing, you know, someone firing at you. Speaker 2 But as an educator, I know you all look at it, those kids in that building are your kids. And I've got four daughters. I'm going in. Yeah. And I would do that for anybody's kids. Speaker 1 Yeah. That's why we love you, Officer Ives. Yeah, Believe that. We believe that. So why do you think and we've talked a little bit on this, but I just I think it's so important that people understand. I feel like I've heard more and more about kids necessarily. Oh, I'm an introvert. I really don't enjoy being around people. And we think, Oh, well, they're an introvert, they don't enjoy being around people. Speaker 1 Let them be comfortable with not being around people. Why are connections so important? Whether you're an introvert or you're not an introvert, why is it still so important to have connections and relationships with people? Speaker 2 In my opinion, that allows you to express ideas. It allows you to relieve some of the emotions you might be going through. It allows you to be able to understand what other people are also going through. And it might be the same thing you're dealing with. And at that point, you know, I'm not I'm not alone. It's about communication. Speaker 2 It's about understanding each other, even if it's a couple of words here and there. Good job. Have a great day. Something like that. You know, someone is having that thought about you and that they actually they're watching your back to a certain degree. I think kids that are introverts and a lot of officers are introverts. It's very hard to with some of the stuff excuse me that we have to deal with day in and day out, that you can express the things that you've seen or you've heard or you've had to do. Speaker 2 It wears on you and you don't want to put that on some other people, but you also understand that it wears on. You and it's on you and in you've got to have some sort of release, be it physical, or you're working out or running or doing something or even just talking to somebody, it actually just the the head nod, just it's going to be okay. Speaker 2 That type of look that the the the eye contact allows you to know that, hey, this is not just you that's gone through this. People have been through something similar to that and it's going to be all right. Speaker 3 I think the little things make such a difference. Like it always stands out in my mind. There was one time it was during the pandemic, my mom and I actually went down to Galveston. We just walked the seawall and there was, I'm assuming, a homeless man who was sitting on a bench. And I smiled at him and he said thank you and had like teary eyes. Speaker 3 And he said, I was the first and only person to smile at him that whole day. Wow. And it's like those little things, like, that's not giving money, you know, that's not putting out a whole lot of effort. But those little things make a difference. And I think that made me really reflect on like, okay, like it's important to keep doing that, you know? Speaker 3 Exactly. Yeah. And we're just we are social by nature. Like we need community by nature. So I mean, it's so, it's so important to find connections, even if you have, if you're more introverted, like my twin sisters, super introverted, less now than she used to be, but it's just finding ways that you can connect because she may have been super shy at school, but she was the biggest goofball the walls at home. Speaker 3 So it's just finding ways for her to feel comfortable. And when she would get comfortable, she was like a totally different person. So I think that's with any any person. Speaker 2 True. Speaker 1 So you talked about having a stress outlet. What is yours? What do you do for fun? Speaker 2 I like to work out, especially if it doesn't have to do with cardio. She was tell me I need to do more cardio. I like the challenge of of lifting weights, playing with my kids, playing games with them. I do like playing Madden even though I'm not that good on it. But it is. It's it's soccer. Football. Speaker 3 That's football. I don't know anything about stuff. Speaker 2 It's a foot. There's most of the time is is getting home, sitting with my wife in the back, on the back porch and just being home. Sometimes it is, you know, we don't really appreciate the little things until you really don't have the time for those. And that's what's one of my main things right now was just spinning that little that little bit of time of peace and quiet with her, with my girls throwing the ball with the dog, something like that, just to get away from some of the hysteria that you have to go through on a daily basis. Speaker 1 Yeah. And you see a lot of the hardest parts of life, I'm sure, as a police officer. So that those are important things. So in wrap up here, just have a couple of kind of interesting silly questions that I want to ask you. If you couldn't do what do, what would you do? Speaker 2 I would love to be a history teacher. All of American history. We can sit here and talk World War Two all day long. Speaker 1 No, we can't. Speaker 2 We? Speaker 3 Yeah. Speaker 1 You would not have a good conversation with me. I have a very one sided. Speaker 2 Oh, but my dad taught me very often about this country, and from that point on, I have the utmost respect for any of our veterans, especially the greatest generation and what they had to do and still what they had to go through. Yeah, my dad was in Vietnam and the stuff that he had to go through, it just it amazes me, but I would have loved to a teached was taught the you know what you as history and you know what those guys had to go through and then the interaction with the students and seeing what they actually know. Speaker 2 I, I learned that early on when I was doing there, I had a picture on my laptop of the flag raising on Iwo Jima, and I had several students ask me what it was, and these were seventh graders. And I'm going, How do you not know what this is? And then from there, it kind of led into a discussion, a very quick discussion. Speaker 2 But they wanted more. And the more and more. And then so each day of each week I come back, I'd have a different story for them, something a little bit different that they would not have known, or you just can't pick up a textbook and ask. And that that just really sparked their interest. And that's kind of what my oldest daughter right now, she is studying. Speaker 2 She's getting her degree in history. Speaker 1 All right. Speaker 2 And she wants to work in a museum curator and to talk with her about World War two history. She's pulling up details that I don't know. Oh, wow. She's been doing a lot. Excuse me. A lot more research. Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh, I bet that makes your heart happy. It does. Yeah, I. Speaker 3 There's a booth at the War Museum. Oh, yeah. Speaker 2 Fantastic. Speaker 1 Well, you know what he made me think of? He would be great to go around because I know you've seen some of these videos. If we gave him my little microphone and he went around asking history questions. Speaker 3 You're going to get on to talk a little bit. Speaker 1 Yeah, that would be good. That would be great, honey. Speaker 3 Oh, my gosh. Okay. We're going to be contacting you in the near future. Speaker 2 Sounds good. Speaker 3 We're just showing up. Actually, I was like. Speaker 1 Okay, so if you won $150 million, this is hard for us to wrap our minds around. $150 million. What would be your first purchase? Speaker 2 Really quick, right off the top of my head. A dozen roses for my wife. Speaker 1 Oh, my gosh. That's the sweetest thing ever. Speaker 2 We've actually we've had those kind of discussions before. You know, we always play we play those games. Well, what if we won the lottery? What would we do? We'd still live in our old house. We would fix it up a little bit. We'd put some away, we'd give some to, you know, family members and charities and stuff like that. Speaker 2 But we've always thought of, you know, what could we do? What? How much money is too much money? You know, we have to talk about the Astros talking sports. I always thought that. Why? If you always want to win a World Series or you want to win a Super Bowl, why do you have to go for these huge contracts when 12 million how much difference is there? Speaker 2 Between 7 million, Right. Can't live off that for a year. Give me a break. But immediately she is everything to me. And that's first thing I would do. Speaker 1 Love that answer. Speaker 3 I know. Speaker 1 So I already ask you what you do for fun. So Astros or Yankees? You already said Astros. So we'll wrap up with this. What is your. So we do best five out of seven for this series right the Astros game Yes. Yeah, five out of seven. So what's your prediction on what we're going to end up with? Speaker 2 I think the Astros and six. Speaker 1 Okay. Astros and six. All right. Well, good. Well, thank you for coming in and talking to us today about safety. Appreciate it. Thank you for everything you do. Speaker 2 Thank you.