When a child loses a parent, there is not much that could be more devastating. This can be compounded when the child is young and unable to understand why their mom or day is not with them.
That is when it is important to remember that it sometimes takes a village to raise a child. The colleagues of a police officer named Justin Scherlan understood this.
Scherlan was an officer who lost his life due to complications of an injury he sustained while on duty. His four children were left without a father.
So more than two dozen police officers from the Amarillo Police Department in Texas became the village for the children and escorted them to school so that they know they were not alone.
The children and their mother, Jessica, were not aware of the surprise.
Little Jackson started first grade this week. It was his first ever day of school and it meant so much to him that the officers walked by his side into school on this special day.
Officer Jeb Hilton shared “everyone was having a terrible time regulating their emotions that day.”
He added that “it was simply one of those moments that truly grabs your heart, plus the fact that the family was startled to see everybody there.”
Jackson took time to thank each of the officers who were there for him and he gave them a hug as they stood in line at the school’s corridor.
Officer Hilton said, “It was Jackson’s very first day of school ever, so we really wanted to be there for him and support him.”
This was also a message to the family that the police family would be there for the Scherlan family.
“We spend a lot of time with each other on the job and go through a lot of difficult situations. We consider ourselves family, and we absolutely wanted to step in there and show their family that they will be taken care of,” officer Hilton said.
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