This is a link from the "current news" section on the main page - I thought it deserved more attention.

Time to instruct your children to inform the school that it is none of their business.

[url]http://www.freep.com/news/metro/nriley2_20020602.htm[/url]


ROCHELLE RILEY: Guns deaths have cop on crusade

June 2, 2002
Sgt. Kevin D. Miller is angry. He's frustrated. But he's got a plan.

Miller, who supervises the Detroit Police Department's Community Oriented Policing unit, speaks to students all the time at parochial, private and public schools citywide. But Miller, an officer for 16 of his 35 years, does more. He visits parents.

"I ask them what they are doing, how are they educating their child regarding violence," he said. "A lot of times, the children are not told that they're loved. The parents haven't been told that they're loved. So there's this ongoing degree of violence based on upbringing. There's no discussion about how to deal with violent situations without having physical combat."

After years of watching the kids and their parents, Miller has come up with a way to get guns away from children.

[u]He wants school officials -- teachers and principals -- to ask children about guns in their homes, whether those guns are locked up and whether the children feel safe. The names of children who are scared at home would be reported to Child Protective Services and the police. [/u]

"We need to talk to children and have that information exposed," he said, a day after visiting Grace Hospital and praying with a 12-year-old Detroit boy shot by a 13-year-old friend who found a 22-caliber gun in his parents' home.

"The school has a responsibility to tell authorities what children are going through at home," he said. "I know that some of these children are crying out for help, but it's not being reported."

Not about civil rights
Miller says he isn't talking about violating civil rights. He's talking about saving children's lives.

"I'm talking prevention. I'm glad the prosecutor is prosecuting parents who don't put their guns away. The child has a right to live."

Miller's idea might work, said Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Nancy Diehl.

"People have a right to have guns in their homes, but if the guns are not put away, is that a threat of harm? I think an argument can be made that, absolutely, it is," she said. "In cases where kids are harmed by guns being left out, parents have been charged. So his idea is not so off-the-wall. I think it's worth pursuing."

Diehl says she's amazed that parents still leave guns out after reading about other parents whose children shot themselves or friends.

continued...

"We charge parents to deter them because how could they be punished worse than if they've lost a child?" she asked. "But it doesn't stop them. I give five stars to Kevin Miller. Somebody's got to wake these people up. There's nothing wrong with talking to kids and, based on information that there is harm or threatened harm to a child's health or welfare, that is a mandatory CPS referral."

A gift not given by man
Miller isn't waiting for a legislative mandate. He plans to encourage educators to talk to students more. And, of course, he'll continue talking with them, too.

His biggest message, one he'll give them whether they're in the classroom or the living room, is this:

"Life is a gift. Sometimes we don't see life as a gift. But it is. We don't have the right to take someone else's gift. That gift was not given by man so it should not be taken by man."

Hearing his commitment to children should serve as a reminder to any of us who can help kids.

Making sure that children aren't afraid in their own homes is not just something teachers can do. It's something we all should try to do.




Contact ROCHELLE RILEY at 313-223-4473 or e-mail [email protected].

C'mon guys, Imbroglio's right.  This cop's a hero.

They do this kind of thing as a matter of routine in Cuba, Red China, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union.

Not one complaint from the people in those countries I might add.