The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
Today’s Something Good is dads.
In Shreveport, Louisiana last month, Southwood High School was plagued with a sudden uptick in violence over the period of a week, according to CBS News. After 23 students were arrested in three days, a group of about 40 dads led by Michael LeFitte decided that they were the best people to take care of their kids. So they formed a group called Dads on Duty to patrol the hallways and keep an eye on the kids.
None of them have a background in counseling or criminal justice but their methods are working – there have not been any further incidents since the dads showed up to help maintain a positive learning environment.
“We stopped fighting; people started going to class,” said one student. “I immediately felt a form of safety,” said another.
As to their methods, a combination of firmness and gentle humor seem to be doing the trick. The dads provide a gauntlet of positivity for the kids entering the building each morning, calling out encouragement to the students and telling “dad jokes”. One young lady, smiling and shaking her head, told CBS News that the dads like to tell the kids their shoes are untied when they aren’t.
LaFitte laughed with the other fathers when talking about the effects of their dad jokes on the students. “They hate it! They’re so embarrassed by it,” he said.
There are stern words and enjoinders for students to get to class or to behave themselves, as well. A couple students explained that the dads have a tool in their arsenal that is not to be ignored: “a look”. It’s a special power the dads wield, the kids maintain.
The jokes and the looks are effective. “The school has just been happy — and you can feel it,” says a Southwood student. The fathers know that their presence is needed. “Because not everybody has a father figure at home – or a male, period, in their life. So just to be here makes a big difference,” they say.
Dads on Duty plan to continue having a presence at Southwood and hope to start additional chapters throughout Louisiana and eventually across the nation.
Dad looks and dad jokes are something good. Now it’s your turn… Tell me something good!
