School tells cop not to wear uniform to pick up his own kids

An elementary school principal in Mesa, Ariz. has asked a police officer not to wear his police uniform or his gun when he picks up his daughter at school, reports local Fox affiliate KSAZ.

The reason: it’s just too scary for some parents because the officer was — gasp! — carrying a gun.

The Daily Caller is not making this up.

The cop, SWAT officer Scott Urkov, is a police officer in Coolidge, about 40 miles from the Mesa. His daughter attends Entz Elementary School in the Phoenix suburb.

“One of our parents at the elementary school is a SWAT officer and he dropped his children off at school one day in full uniform, fully armed,” explained Mesa Unified School District spokeswoman Helen Hollands.

Later, the Entz Elementary principal contacted Urkov and requested that he never again come to school in uniform.

He responded by venting on Facebook:
“Nothing like your kids school calling and asking if I could not come to pick up my daughter in uniform cause parents were concerned when their kids came home telling them there was a man at school with a gun. Are you freaking kidding me?”
Hollands defended the principal’s decision to tell the police officer not to come to school dressed as a police officer. She also offered a half-assed apology for the ages on behalf of the school district.

“We apologize that he took the discussion the wrong way perhaps,” Hollands told KSAZ. “That was not the intent of the principal to offend him.”

The school has since invited Urkov back to Entz Elementary — armed and in uniform — to speak with children at a special school assembly about the job a police officer does. School officials are calling it “a teachable moment.”

“I wouldn’t say he’s being singled out,” Hollands explained to the Fox affiliate. “I’d say he’s being appreciated for what he does.”

Urkov told the Fox affiliate that he has no further comment on the story because his superiors at the Coolidge Police Department told him to “just let it be.”