Officer Creates Comic To Help Students Make Good Choices

• NCJ Number: 251510
• Author(s): Becky Lewis
• Date Published: January 2018
• Length: 2 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2014-IJ-CX-K404
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Award: A proposal to operate the National Criminal Justice Technology Resource Center.

Annotation

This article describes the content and potential uses of a comic book series created, written, and drawn by a police officer in Clarksville, Tennessee to be used in a gang resistance curriculum called the Gang Resistance and Education Training (G.R.E.A.T).

Abstract

The comic series features a team of superheroes called Team G.R.E.A.T. The first volume, which was issued in the fall of 2017, is titled "When Gangs Strike Fear...A City Needs Heroes." This issue is available free from the G.R.E.A.T website. The comic series is intended to be a supplement for the G.R.E.A.T. curriculum in elementary and middle schools. The first volume supplements the first two lessons in the curriculum, as it focuses on the consequences of making bad choices. The upcoming second volume will accompany lessons 3 and 4, and the third volume fits the final two lessons in the curriculum. The comic book's author is police officer Greg Granderson, a former military police officer who moved from patrol into coordinating the department's G.R.E.A.T. program. He was motivated to create the comic book series because of the importance of this medium to him as a child. The logistics involved in his creation of the comic book series are described.