A joint event between the Marcus and Flower Mound high school PTSAs on Tuesday will feature “Tall Cop” Jermaine Galloway, who educates on the most up-to-date trends in drug use.
The event hopes to bring the Marcus and Flower Mound communities together to educate parents, teachers and staff on issues related to drug and alcohol use.
Penni Davis of the Marcus High School PTSA said the organization heard lots of recommendations for a Tall Cop event when the group was looking for ways to reach out to the community in response to a parent and family survey done last spring.
“Tall Cop really prides himself on making his presentations relevant to the area,” said Davis. “So, he goes to the local shops and gas stations in the community that adults or guardians might not be aware of where kids can get substances and it shows how easy it is to find someone to get them.”
Davis and the Marcus PTSA later reached out to Flower Mound’s PTSA to see if they would be interested in partnering with them on the event. They also reached out to middle schools in the feeder patterns.
“Not only is it important information for everybody, but what a great opportunity for us to create a community event partnering with our high schools’ feeder middle schools, too,” said Davis. “Because it’s only going to benefit everybody in the school district and make a healthier and more educated community on substance abuse.”
Galloway, a native Texan, graduated from the University of San Francisco before working in law enforcement for 18 years. He has worked in substance abuse prevention and education for more than 20 years.
In 2007, Galloway started “Tall Cop Says Stop,” which is now based in Argyle, and has conducted trainings in every U.S. state, as well as some in Canada.
His program “High in Plain Sight” is a nationally-recognized program that provides training, education and enforcement strategies for community substance abuse issues.
Davis said Lamar Middle School and McKamy Middle School have partnered for the event.
“Before they know it, those parents are going to have high schoolers,” she said. “So if we could provide them the resource and the information with this opportunity, we definitely wanted to extend that to them.”
The event will be held at the Marcus High School Auditorium from 6:30-8 p.m. To register, visit the Tall Cop registration page. Davis emphasized this is a community-wide event and is open to all parents, teachers and staff in the district.
“Our families are busy, most have children deeply involved in school, multiple sports, clubs, extracurricular activities and all of it creates plenty of opportunities for concerns for parents,” said Davis. “Tall Cop’s presentation is another added resource or tool that we can bring to our parents, community and teachers to help them just be aware.”
