Lead to Read

The Tonganoxie Police Department recently coordinated with Unified School District # 464 to facilitate police officers reading to children at Tonganoxie Elementary School.  Like similar reading programs in the metro, this interaction centers around police and teachers encouraging children to read well and more often.  The District’s teachers and Tonganoxie Police hope to make this program fun in the process. 

The initiative is simple.  Officers team up with grade school teachers who set a basic reading curriculum for their students.  Officers come at set times to read to the entire class, or are assigned to a student who reads to the officer.  The hope is students will enjoy the police interaction, and don’t view reading as a chore.  When children flourish at school, they tend to shy away from bad behaviors that can get them into trouble.  Reading to the kids gives our department a great opportunity to interact, and lets children know that the police are their friends.  We want the children to know that the police are invested in seeing them succeed.