Field Trip Adventures

Yesterday the third grade went on a walking field trip, and boy was it quite the experience.

We left the school and headed about a block or two away to the city hall building.  There the mayor talked to all of the kids for a few minutes.  Then a police officer took us through a tour of the building and let the kids look at his police car.  This part of the trip was fairly uneventful.

From the city hall building we walked to the courthouse and county jail.  There were 4 classes with about 80 kids so we split in half to make the tours a little smaller.  Our group went to the jail first.  This is definitely where it got interesting.  The jailer came our and talked to the kids for a few minutes.  First he was talking about the building and how many inmates it can hold and things like that.  The kids kept saying that they wanted to see a bad guy so he told them we weren't going to.  He then asked how many kids had family members that had ever been in jail.  I was surprised to see that about half of the kids raised their hands.  The jailer then talked about how those people aren't bad people, they just made a bad choice.  It was a pretty good little talk.  Then he proceeds to tell them about how the youngest person ever in that jail was 11 years old and that he stayed there for like 3 days or something.  He then also tells them that they've had murderers, rapists, burglars, arsonists, etc. in the jail.  We thought rapist was a little much to tell them, but not really a huge deal.
We then went into the back and into the garage (that has a special name...I just can't remember it) where they bring in the inmates.  He explained that the cop gets out first and puts his gun in a lock box so the inmate can't get it.  He then told a story about a cop that forgot to do that (at a different jail somewhere in the Midwest) but thought it was okay because he knew the guy.  The inmate ended up stealing the gun and killing the cop, jailer, and dispatcher.
Then we moved into the booking room and he went through those procedures.  He showed how the inmate has to stand so they can be more thoroughly searched, they take their picture, sit them down and get information from them.  Simple enough right? Well he explains about the cameras and microphones in the room that record everything that happens.  That way when they go to court there is evidence of how drunk they were or whatever for the judge.  Right after this one of the girls in the group asks what they need the cameras for.  We all (the teachers) look at each other like, "didn't we JUST go over that?"  But he changes his answer this time.  He tells them it is for the jailer's protection as well as the inmate's protection.  Sometimes the inmate will try to hurt the cop or something so it protects them legally.  But also, in other big cities sometimes the cops think it is okay to beat up the inmates or even try to have sex with them.
Yes, you just read that right.  He told the kids that sometimes cops try to have sex with the inmates.  The third grade, 8-9 year old kids.  Our faces were like, "UM WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?"  The other two teachers were whispering, "at least he didn't talk about the strip search."  He then was talking about what they eat everyday, and what they have to wear.  And then....he talked about the strip search.  Luckily he didn't get too detailed with it.  He just told them that sometimes they would have to get naked in front of people they didn't know. But let me recap for you what was talked about in about a 3 minute window....sex, strip search, and being naked.  Awesome.  When he walked into the kitchen to get the food the only thing you could hear the whispering was sex.  None of us could make eye contact with the jailer or the kids for fear of what they might say.  It was quite the experience.
After that the trip was fairly uneventful.  We got to see a jail cell, their shower, and the day room.  I actually liked seeing everything.  I have never been inside a jail and always wondered what everything was really like.

From there we went to the courthouse and took a tour of the building.  I was fairly un-interested.  The building was hot and we walked up and down a lot of stairs.  I was feeling extremely uncomfortable with my already hot pregnancy temperatures and just wanted to go back outside.  So I really can't tell you a lot about this building and what we saw.

From there we went the LONG way around to a local park.  We ate lunch and the kids played for a while.  The tables were full with the kids so we just sat on the concrete and ate.  It was really nice to sit and be cooled off for a while.

After everyone ate and ran around for a little while we went to the fire station.  One of the volunteer fire fighters came and showed them all of their gear, talked about what to do in a fire, and some of the gadgets on the trucks.  Their trucks are definitely a lot different than the trucks in Vegas.  Then they pulled two of the trucks out and sprayed some water.  And this is when I realized we are definitely in a small town.  The kids all got on TOP of the trucks and we rode back to the school.  No, the trucks aren't meant to hold people on top.  I rode in the front of the truck because my teacher was too nervous about me climbing the ladder and being up there with my pregnant belly, which I was actually totally fine with.  While we were driving the kids were waving to everyone.  All the cars would pull over and waive back to the kids.  It was quite the little parade.

And that was the end of our field trip.  It probably wouldn't have really been that eventful or exciting if it wasn't for the fabulous tour of the jail.  We are now bracing ourselves (well, I'm not haha) for the parent phone calls to come on Monday.