Saturday, May 27, 2017

Being A Parent of a Correctional Officer Means Waiting For That Bad Phone Call

Photo: Eli Stancliff posing with his Gold Medal from last years National Law Enforcement Games.

Good Day World!

My youngest son, Eli, is a Correctional Officer at Pelican Bay Prison in Crescent City, California.

It's the home of the baddest of the bad in California's penal system. So-called "Shot callers," or crime bosses, plot crimes from their cells.

You may have recently read about the riot there. Large groups of prisoners overran a small group of officers in the day yard.

My son was one of the responding officers. During the brawl he was instructed to save a prisoner's life - he'd been shot in the face.

Luckily Eli didn't sustain any injuries. What he did do, at his first chance, was to call his mother, and I, to reassure us.

"I'm okay, " he said. That was all we wanted to know. He told us before it even hit the news. He knew what both of our greatest fear was...getting that phone call.

You know the one I mean. Where a stranger calls you and tells you your son has been killed. The one you've had nightmares about throughout the years that your child has been working in a dangerous profession.

Police Officer, correctional officer, a fireman, a soldier, a sailor, coast guard, and many more professions bring that fear your child is going to lose his/hers life in the course of doing their duty.

In every case, the parents must reconcile themselves to the fact that someday they could get that phone call. Until then, we parents must go on with life and it's many challenges.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

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