Protecting the Community
Joanne Walker was couldn't believe that she was sitting in a classroom again. While she did support the major's attempt at making the police look good, she didn't understand why that meant that detectives had to go to classrooms around town to observe/teach the students. Even more since the English teacher that she was assigned to was horrible at her job. Joanne could have done a better job at teaching this class than the teacher. Not that Joanne would say anything about it since Morrison was in another classroom and she would never hear the end of it if she would embarrass the police department.
Sadly Joanne couldn't see how she was doing much good in the classroom seeing as how the students were not listening to the teacher. As far as Joanne could see the teacher was getting very frustrated with the students and was about to give up on them. And as Joanne predicted the teacher finally gave up on teaching her students. But in a twist that Joanne didn't see coming the teacher not only gave up on the students, but on her job. The teacher stormed out of the classroom while her students laughed at the sight.
And after the door slammed the students turned to Joanne. Sighing Joanne tried to decide what she could do. She couldn't leave the students alone in the classroom but she was not a teacher. Looking the student's faces she could tell that leaving them alone was going to be a bad idea so she decided that the best thing to do was to continue their lesson of Romeo and Juliet. But instead of forcing the students to sit there and read Joanne was going to make things interesting.
About twenty minutes later the woman from the school office came up to Morrison and the Principal as they stood talking about the program. She was frantic with worry as she told them that the teacher assigned to Joanne's class had left and that Joanne was the only adult in the classroom. This of course panicked Morrison since Joanne was not used to children. But as the three of them reached the door to the classroom they were all surprised to hear laughter from the classroom. When they entered the classroom they were surprised to see that Joanne actually had complete control over the students. She had them doing some sort of activity that had everyone laughing as they raced to answer Joanne's questions about Romeo and Juliet. Joanne saw Morrison watching her and smiled before turning back to the students.
When the bell rang for the end of the day the students groaned with disappointment. As Joanne walked towards the door the students continued to surround her asking questions about the story. The quickness of the student's affection seemed to surprise the Principal. But as Joanne watched he seemed to make a decision in his mind that involved her. When the students finally left with their families the Principal approached Joanne and asked her if she had a moment. He asked if she had any extra time after work and when she answered that she might he asked her if she would be willing to take over an after school program at the community center. The woman in charge had moved to be with her family and no one seemed to want to take over the program. Since she was a detective the parents would approve of her and she looked like she got along well with the children. Joanne watched Morrison talk to another detective over b the gate and considered her options. Finally she agreed to take over and asked if she could bring a friend as well.
