Photo by: Carter Epley

Mrs. PL teaches class.

At first glance, teachers and police officers do not seem to have much in common. Teachers inspire students and create passion for learning. Police officers are enforcement to keep people safe and in line, but teachers and police officers aren’t so different. 

Andrea Peterson-Longmore, known to her students as PL,  has been teaching for 10 years. It all starts when she is only eight years old. Her mother is a kindergarten lunch lady, so she spends a lot of time after school at kindergarten. It’s from her mother’s job that she got the idea of being a teacher. PL enjoys working with teenage students specifically, because they have an awfully hopeful outlook on the world compared with most adults. 

Her husband Matt also went into his career as a police officer because of family. His grandmother is the first female state trooper in Wisconsin, so he wants to carry on his family’s legacy. Matt works for Fond Du Lac county as a sheriff’s deputy. These two career directions may seem decidedly different, but they have several remarkable similarities. 

They’re both service roles in the community,

they’re both paid with taxpayer dollars, and

they both work with kids who aren’t in great places in their lives.

PL works with students who are at risk of not graduating, and Matt works with kids in juvenile detention. He has learned important empathy skills toward those in juvenile detention from PL.

She has taught him to “see the whole child, not just the child in front of you, and the stupid thing they might have done.” 

However, the biggest similarity is that because of his experience, Matt teaches newer officers how to do their jobs better. So in a way, they’re both teachers.

Teaching officers, teaching students, and teaching each other.