https://www.yahoo.com/gma/police-end-high-five-fridays-massachusetts-schools-amid-074531385--abc-news-topstories.html
This story is quite interesting in that it speaks about this program to help students feel engaged with authority figures, specifically police placed in the school system. This program received an outpouring of support from social media and the community, but has since ended due to concerns that students with negative experiences with policemen would make then uncomfortable, specifically minorities and undocumented immigrants. This event has shed some light on the relationship between police and groups of minority/immigrants. The police department is looking for other alternatives to help promote positive engagement.
From a social work standpoint, a lot of social issues arise due to the complex relationship of authority figures to students, specifically those of color or immigrants that may have developed a fear for policemen due to stereotypes and tragic events that have occurred among the two groups. I think it's a great idea to introduce the high five program because it does support a positive interaction between students and police, which would lesson the stigma that exists for authority. Things like this can also evolve into more complex programs that encourage further engagement from police with students in a positive way, in order to promote safety in the school environment and help break the negative views from students that have previous perspectives.
I think this is an awesome initiative and is so important-especially in those communities where the children may only see/hear of police officers as the "bad figure". This portrays that they are someone safe for them to go to.
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