by Carlos Miller, Associated Press
PHOENIX, Ariz. (AP) - Phoenix police Officer Art Morales grew up in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.
His family was poor and there were many mouths to feed, but he never felt compelled to pursue a life of crime. Instead, he joined the Army, attended Glendale Community College and joined the police academy in 1972.
Today, the 57-year-old school resource officer spends his days trying to get youths to stay in school and out of trouble.
“I tell them there’s no excuse to take the wrong path,” Morales said.
Morales, who maintains an office at Desert Horizon Elementary School in west Phoenix, was honored in summer 2002 for completing his 30th year with the department.
But unlike other officers who are honored for three decades of service, Morales chose not to receive the award in front of Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza at City Hall. And he turned down an offer to receive the award at police headquarters inside the office of Phoenix Police Chief Harold Hurtt.
“I told them I’ve already done all that,” said Morales, who was honored that way after his 20th and 25th years with the department.
Instead, he chose to receive the award in front of a group of teens enrolled in Gang Resistance Education and Training, a police program that seeks to give teens an alternative to the gang lifestyle.
Morales spent the summer working with the youths, trying to steer them from a life of crime.
“This year, I wanted to do it differently, I wanted to share it with my kids,” Morales said. “I wanted them to see what an old man from the projects can accomplish if he works hard.”
More recently at Desert Horizon Elemen tary, Morales learned of a 7-year-old boy who was not eating lunch in the cafeteria because he did not have the prepaid card used to purchase lunches. Morales sat the boy down in his office, bought him lunch and learned that the boy’s mother could not afford to buy the school lunches.
The next day, Morales and a school administrator visited the boy’s mother at her home to tell her about the government-funded program that would enable her son to eat at school free.
“We had her fill out all the paperwork and now he can come here and eat breakfast and lunch,” Morales said.
The officer has been working at Desert Horizon Elementary for five years, where he conducts special classes about survival skills. The younger children are taught about the perils of talking to strangers, the older kids are warned about the consequences of drug use.
“I tell them that if I catch them with drugs, I will refer them to the juvenile court system,” Morales said. “If they get caught, they better not say that I didn’t warn them.”
Camille Shaffer, the principal at Desert Horizon Elementary, has known Morales for five years.
“He’s tough-skinned and tenderhearted,” Shaffer said. “He has a wonderful blend of compassion and understanding for the community he works with, yet he balances it with discipline and order.”