This one actually happened to me.

A lot of the ideas for Mac being a crossing guard come from the fact that while I was an aide at an elementary school, I did the crossing guard job in the mornings and evenings. It was super sweet: between half an hour and an hour of built-in time in the morning to just think and wake up, with a few people stopping by to say hi. (It only took about 20 minutes in the afternoon; with the kids all getting “released” together and in a hurry to get home.)

One kid who walked to and from school was named Beau. He was in the fourth grade at the time, and he wore those tennis shoes with the compartment for retractable wheels (One brand name was “Heelies”). He did this exact thing, and he did it so nonchalantly and elegantly. He was a pretty cool kid, who would now be in high school I guess.

Hey… so let’s see how things go when I actually update the comic.

This means a much, much, much larger image than the comic usually is. At the moment, I can’t figure a way to split it up into smaller images and keep it in a single post. I’ll look into that, but for the moment you should be warned.

Hope it’s worth the trouble for you!

How do high school libraries work? Specifically:

• Do they have at the entrances those metal-detector things like public libraries usually have?
• Are they likely to have the little “turnstile” things so that if the metal detector thing registers something you’re prevented from leaving? I remember seeing those in some libraries, but they don’t seem to be that common anymore.
• Obviously they’re going to have a librarian, and probably a paid librarian aide. Do they use student volunteers also? (Like colleges use student workers?)

I suddenly realize I’m pretty familiar with the elementary-school library drill, and the public and college library setups, but I have only vague memories of seeing the high school version once or twice from when my wife taught.

Thanks!