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They're not your typical hall monitors, but dads could soon be patrolling the halls of Waterbury's West Side Middle School
They're not your typical hall monitors, but dads could soon be patrolling the halls of Waterbury's West Side Middle School. According to the Republican-American, the school is looking for volunteer dads to help keep order in the hallways.
The "Watch-Dog Dads" program at the the 1,200-student school started last winter. Five fathers were recruited for a pilot run and three hung on into this fall.
Parent Liaison Grisell Myers tells the newspaper she's aiming for a better balance of parental involvement among mothers and fathers. "It usually is the mom we see," Myers said. "Dad comes into school when it's a big problem."
The job includes walking the hallways over and over with a walkie-talkie, making sure children aren't loitering by bathrooms or hiding from class in odd corners.
Robert Boulerice, a corrections officer serving at the state's youth detention center in Cheshire, is one of the most involved fathers. His wife is a secretary in the school and daughter, Elizabeth, is in the eighth grade. Boulerice told the newspaper many students lack respect for authority. They're harder to deal with than the inmates in Cheshire because he can't apply the same tools