PERRYSBURG – Jeff Graham reaches out to nearly 2,500 Perrysburg students every year, giving them tips on
stranger danger, Halloween safety and bullying.
His commitment to youngsters is so sincere, he spent nearly $12,000 of his own funds last year to make
sure the in-school education programs continue.
But, he stressed, "It’s never been about the money."
Rather, it’s a labor of love.
Graham, a former officer with the Perrysburg Police Department, has set up the non-profit Citizens of
Perrysburg Safety (C.O.P.S.) Education to continue services as a private citizen that he previously had
provided for nine years as a police officer.
After 20 years in law enforcement – first with the Army’s military police and then at Perrysburg – Graham
left the force in 2007.
The department’s education programs, such as D.A.R.E. and Safety Town, were "my life’s work,"
Graham said. The programs were eliminated in 2005, he said, and he established the non-profit C.O.P.S.
Education in August 2006 so he could continue teaching in the schools.
Graham visits first-grade classrooms around Halloween to discuss costume and candy safety, and takes
fourth-graders to Three Meadows Pond for a day a fishing at the conclusion of the Hooked on Fishing Not
on Drugs education program.
"All the programs are set up to be funny, but to drive home a point," he explained. "I’ve
found that when kids are laughing, they’re listening."
At the junior high, he discusses decision-making with sixth-graders and the consequences of bad choices,
plus Internet safety, bullying and any topics they want to address. Graham also attends sixth-grade camp
as a supervisor.
He said he tells students "you have to think about what could happen" as a result of any
decision they make.
He spends a day with seventh-graders in an informal question-and-answer session following their drug
education unit. With eighth-graders, Graham talks about issues they’ll deal with upon moving to the high
school, including juvenile law, dangerous dating and how to get help for friends in trouble.
An important issue he addresses with students is their rights should they find themselves in trouble.
"I’m a firm believer in kids knowing their rights," said Graham, who has four children of his
own.
As a police officer faced with a youngster in trouble, he said he would try to figure out how to help
them rather than processing them into the system.
He estimated he sees up to 2,200 students within Perrysburg School District, and another 200 at St. Rose
School each year.
The school district earlier this year commended Graham for the time and effort he puts into offering the
programs.
Graham provides material needed in his classes, as well as the equipment students use when they go
fishing in the spring.
He said if funding allowed, he would like to bring back a summer safety program for first-grades, a
self-defense class for female students, and a class for sophomores that deals with drinking and driving.

His passion to help students, though, has been challenged by the hard reality of providing financial
security for his family.
Last year he told himself he wouldn’t do this again if he didn’t have the funding. "But here I
am," he shrugged. "I’m going to try to figure out how to keep going the best that I can."

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On the Net: www.copseducation.com