 Sheriff Wasylyshyn talks with 2nd and 3rd graders about safety during a bible school class held in Weston. (Photos: Aaron Carpenter/Sentinel-Tribune)
Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn was the guest speaker from the community on one night of the school, and he spoke to two classes, second and third graders, plus fourth through eighth grade students.
After talking to the children about safety, he showed them a thin, paperback New Testament and a three-inch thick copy of Ohio's Criminal Motor Vehicle Laws, or the Ohio Revised Code. In the classes he asked who had heard about the 10 Commandments, and about half of the children in each room raised their hands.
"God has some very simple rules for us to follow," he told the younger children. "Isn't it amazing God was able to tell us rules, just 10?"
"Those same 10 rules are in this book," the sheriff said, showing a copy of the Ohio Revised Code. He noted how simple it would be if society had just God's 10 rules. A deputy would pull a driver over to the side of the road and inform the driver which commandment he or she had broken. "It'd be real simple."
He marveled in both classes that God "in all his wonder was able to do it with 10 rules. I, as sheriff of the county, don't know every single one of these rules." In the upper grade classroom he looked in the O.R.C. book and found the last law had number 5743.112.
"If you follow the 10 Commandments, you're going to have this covered, doing the right thing with other people," he told the older students. "I'd rather learn the 10 Commandments than this book."
The sheriff handed out a plastic badge to each of the younger children, along with a New Testament supplied by the church. The older children already had Bibles but did take badges.
In both classrooms Wasylyshyn asked the children what they would do if someone tried to grab them at a park, in a mall or elsewhere. After the children talked about yelling, screaming, kicking and punching, he asked them how many had thrown temper tantrums at home with the same behaviors.
He told them that if a stranger tried to grab them, and they kicked and screamed, people nearby might think they were just disobeying their parents and throwing a temper tantrum.
Wasylyshyn urged the children to yell, "Help! This is not my daddy! Help!" while trying to get away. If a woman tried to grab them, they were to yell, "Help! This is not my mother! Help!"
"When other adults hear you say, 'This is not my father or mother,' they'll look into this. It's a whole different story."
Wasylyshyn told the younger children the most important job he has is not being the sheriff, but being a daddy to his twins, James and Kathryn, 8. Later, when he fielded questions, Rachel Parsons, 8, asked about the hardest part of his job.
"A hard part of my job is when someone dies unexpectedly, and I have to go and tell their family. That's hard."
Dawson Wohler, 8, asked about the easiest part of his job. "Talking to children, that's the easiest and most fun part of my job," he answered. Wasylyshyn told them he was a D.A.R.E. officer and did Safety Town in Perrysburg for 12 years.
The sheriff asked the older children to register their bicycles online on his office's Web site, www.woodcountsheriff.com.
» 1 Comment
1"Confused"
at Wednesday, 25 June 2008 07:53
So, where is speeding mentioned in the Big 10? And aren't they in the Old Testament, anyway? And where in the Ohio Revised Code is it illegal to work 7 days a week? Looks like the O.R.C. isn't the only text the Sheriff hasn't fully read.
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