Yesterday at the school, a policeman came in to gave a talk.  According to the boy, he talked about how he is there to protect us and he tried to trick them with a disguise.

Today, I heard more about the encounter from one of the assistants at the school.

The policeman showed the kids pictures of “pretty” people and “ugly” people. He asked them to say whether or not they thought the person looked “good” or “bad” based on the picture. (I can’t say I love the idea behind this lesson, and there’s much to be said about it but since it’s not the point of this story I’m just going to let it slide.)  The kids uniformly said the pretty people were good and the ugly people were bad.  I’m not sure what all the “ugly” people looked like, but I was told that one of them was a man with a mohawk and an earring.  All the kids called out “bad” when the card was displayed, except for one kid who yelled out “that looks like my daddy!” Indeed, her father sports a kelly green mohawk, piercings and tattoos.  The policeman then went on to say that we can’t tell if people are good or bad based on whether they’re pretty or not.

The boy shot his hand up into the air and was called upon.

“Also,” he said, “If they are too pretty, then they might be vain.”

And really, isn’t that the bigger threat?