Two protective fathers on opposite sides of the country donned their uniforms — one military, one police — for off-duty appearances as they accompanied their children to school and stood guard outside the school building this week to help them and other students feel safe.
Maryland police officer Frankie Stephens, 30, decided on Monday that he would accompany his daughter on her first day back at school since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six staff members were fatally gunned down last Friday.
Monday was Stephens’ day off, and, dressed in his Cecil County Sheriff’s Office uniform, he drove his daughter, 7-year-old Ava Stephens, to Perryville Elementary School in his patrol car. . .