The policeman with the skateboard

   Adapted from a story found on Newsela

Photo:  L'Erable

Mr. Fillion is a policeman (پلیس). He has been a policeman for 3 years. But he is not a typical (معمول) policeman. He is the first skateboarding policeman in Canada.

     In June, Mr. Fillion had an idea. He went to a skate park. He got out of his police car. People looked at him. Some of them were afraid (ترسیدن).  Was he going to arrest (توقیف کردن) someone?  No one knew what he was going to do.  Then, he got out his skateboard! Mr. Fillion began doing tricks (فوت و فن).  Mr. Fillion loved to skateboard when he was a little boy. Sometimes he got into trouble with the police.  Often skateboarders do not trust (اعتماد داشتن) the police. And often the police do not trust the skateboarders. Mr. Fillion wanted to change (تغییر دادن) that. He had an idea. Skateboarding could help the children and the police be friends. The police department agreed to his idea. 

     Mr. Fillion is a policeman in a big city in Canada. It has 8 skate parks. He visits all of them. But Mr. Fillion was afraid the skateboarders would not want him in their parks. He thought they would complain (شكايت كردن). He thought they would be afraid of him. But he talked with everyone there. He made friends with them. Then Mr. Fillion tells the children the story of his own childhood (کودکی). 

What do you think?  Did Mr. Fillion have a happy childhood?  Did he have a good childhood?  What do YOU think?

Photo: La Nouvelle Union

Here is the story Mr. Fillion tells the children.  He stopped studying and then he stopped going to school. He did bad things.  He got into trouble with the police.  But later, he knew that he had made a mistake so he worked hard to live a better life. He went back to school. Then he joined the police force. Finally, he decided (تصمیم گرفتن) to use the lessons he learned in his life to help other children. For Mr. Fillion, his work as a policeman is a success. Why?  Because the children and parents do not see him as a policeman, he said.  They see him as a friend on a skateboard.  They see him as someone who wants to help them.

What did you learn from this story?