Students seeking photos of police officers who gave their lives in the line of duty
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The law enforcement students at Beck Career Center, Red Bud, are asking for help in locating some pictures of area police officers that had given their lives in the line of duty.
The students are trying to locate pictures for the following officers. Listed after their name is the agency and date of death.
Cecil Harbison - Illinois Dept. of Corrections - 11/30/1984; Arthur Kisro - Illinois Dept. of Corrections - 11/23/1965; Lewis Paul - Illinois Dept. of Corrections - 11/23/1965; and Joseph Cushman - Illinois Dept. of Corrections - 10/24/1982.
The Beck students are high school juniors and seniors who are interested in pursuing a law enforcement career. After viewing the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial website, at www.nleomf.org and the Officer Down Memorial pages at www.ipa-usa.org they noticed that many officers listed did not have a picture available. The students determined which Illinois officers are missing pictures and hope to collect those pictures and have them posted on the site to properly recognized the sacrifice of the officers.
"You'll never know what it meant to me and my family. My grandfather was always our hero and now he's a hero to those grandchildren and great-grandchildren that never had the opportunity to know him.?We still get tears in our eyes when grandpa is honored. We can't thank you enough" said Janice Augustine, Nursing Director of Beck Career Center and granddaughter of slain Sgt. Alfered Descher,?Columbia PD, EOW Feb. 17, 1964, commented on the posting of her grandfather's photo.
Last year the students contacted the police agencies involved and were successful in locating seventy pictures. Now they are contacting area newspapers in the hope that residents and relatives may have some pictures still not located. The students are initially concentrating on the 34 counties of southern Illinois.
Prior State Superintendent of Education Dr. Dunn called the student's efforts "an innovative project" that he was very impressed with and the students "learned of a need and created a way to fulfill that need."
Retired Chief Kevin Gordon who serves as the class instructor, commented "We hope that a relative or friend has a picture that they would send us. Any assistance is greatly appreciated as we honor our fallen heroes."
Pictures sent will be scanned and sent back but digital pictures are preferred and can be emailed to: KGordon@monroe.k12,il.us and he can be contacted at 618-473-222 ext. 105.
"Thanks to the students for the dedication to honoring Illinois' fallen law enforcement heroes," stated Chris Cosgroff, Chairman of the Officer Down Memorial Page.
All expenses for this project (postage, etc.) are provided by the International Police Association (IPA), US Section,?Region 57. The IPA is the world's oldest and largest police fraternal organization. Their website is www.ipa.usa.org/region57.