ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - “I’m just finishing up my 28th year as a teacher,” said Sara Ross from her fourth-grade classroom at Expo Elementary School in St. Paul.
Her students had already been released for summer vacation; the quiet gave her a chance to reflect during a break from the school year’s final meetings.
“I’ve enjoyed my career as a teacher,” Ross told the St. Paul Pioneer Press (https://bit.ly/2sPA8gN ). “But I have felt the nudge for the last five to seven years to do something different.”
Or perhaps it really started back when Ross, 49, of Anoka, was just a kid.
“I always wanted to do something with law enforcement,” she said. “I grew up with shows like ’Emergency!’ and ’CHiPs.’ I loved those shows - they were exciting, they got to help people and they were really good role models.”
But was it too big of a dream for a girl back then?
“Back in the ’80s, when I was graduating, not a lot of women went into that profession,” Ross says.
Ross, who grew up in Roseville and attended Mounds View Public Schools, considered other ways to serve, too.
“I thought about being a paramedic or a firefighter, but I also liked working with kids. I baby-sat all through my middle school and high school years and enjoyed it,” she said. Ultimately, “I went to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for my teaching degree and, because they get you into the classroom right away, I realized that this was what I wanted to do, because I had a really great experience.”
Ross taught for a decade in El Paso, Texas, before returning to Minnesota to teach in St. Paul schools. The elementary-school teacher also went on to earn her master’s degree in educational leadership, got a K-12 principal license and worked as a behavioral intervention and support specialist in the district. It was all great training for a teacher - intense study of education, leadership and behavior - as well as for a future police officer.
“My kids are all graduated now,” said Ross, who has almost-19-year-old twin sons, a 21-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old stepson. “I was ready for a new challenge.”
A challenge that comes with a badge.
“My husband said, ’You’ve been talking about it forever - go back and do it. Otherwise you’ll regret not doing it.’”
This is how Ross came to enroll at Rasmussen College in 2015 to earn another degree - an associate’s degree in law enforcement.
It’s been a learning curve, even for a teacher.
“I went back to school at 40 to get my master’s degree, so I knew what I was in for in terms of writing papers and managing your job with your coursework. The online piece was also pretty easy to learn and maneuver. It was the skills program - it’s like a police academy -that was the biggest challenge for me.”
Picture your fourth-grade teacher engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Can you?
“Not that I’m old,” Ross said, “but some of the kids in my class were the same age as my twin boys. It was very physical, intensive training.”
She rocked it all, though - from her coursework to her skills training (where she was selected by her classmates and instructors to be a team leader).
“I made the dean’s list every quarter,” Ross said.
This is how Patty Sagert, campus director of Rasmussen College Blaine Campus, came to know Ross.
“I would attend the academic awards dinner that Rasmussen hosts every quarter,” Ross said. “Patty kept seeing me and my family at these dinners, and we got to know each other.”
Sagert was there when Ross was presented with her Law Enforcement Skills Certificate.
“She gave me a charm that has one word engraved on it,” said Ross. “It says ’Fearless.’ “
That word - “fearless” - was the topic of a speech she was invited to give as the student speaker at June’s graduation ceremony at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul.
“I’m going to talk about being fearless in the pursuit of your dreams,” said Ross in an interview before commencement. “I’m going to talk about how being fearless doesn’t really mean being without fear - to me, it means facing the things that we do fear, and overcoming them.”
Ross, who has already passed Minnesota’s peace-officer licensing exam, is applying for police jobs in the metro. Although she is continuing as a teacher for now, her students have faith that she will be able to find work in her next field of choice.
“One of my students wore a T-shirt that said, ’I fought the law and the law won’ and he said ’I wore this shirt for you,’ ” Ross said, laughing. “Another one wrote me a card that said, ’P.S., Good luck with your police work.’ “
She’ll need it - the law enforcement profession is under scrutiny in the face of so many high-profile, officer-involved shootings in the United States.
“I am not going into this profession blindly,” Ross said. “I understand the challenges, but I really do believe that it is an honor to serve, and I hope to get an opportunity to do so.”
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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, https://www.twincities.com
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