Meanwhile in Louisiana: Dads Form Embarrassing Patrol Group, Unfortunately Become Useful Saving Local School, No Dad Joke at All

Did you ever hear the one about the hall monitor dads who patrolled the corridors of a troubled high school armed with jokes? Other than opening pickle jars and occasionally taking out the trash, we didn’t know dads were good for much. But it turns out, a group of concerned fathers recently eased the tension at one Louisiana high school that had been battling a surge of violence.

To give you an idea of how bad things had gotten at Southwood High, 23 students were arrested over just a three-day period at the start of the school year. After that, a group of 40 dads in Shreveport decided to form the ultimate dad-joke machine west of the Mississippi.

Michael LaFitte, the father of Dads on Duty, explained the simplicity of the new system which places a rotating crew of dads on campus to help keep the peace during school hours. “We’re dads. We decided the best people who can take care of our kids are who? Are us.”

And it turns out LaFitte’s vision is working, and a lot of it has to do with what experts are calling the power of the dad joke. One student tried to explain this secret weapon that only men who’ve changed diapers possess, “They just make funny jokes like, ‘Oh, hey, your shoe is untied,’ but it’s really not untied.”

The results are inspiring. “I immediately felt a form of safety,” one student said. “We stopped fighting. People started going to class.” A classmate added, “The school has just been happy – and you can feel it.”

As for the paters, they’ve decided to keep the Dads on Duty going permanently and are now looking to start chapters around the state of Louisiana and beyond. “Because not everybody has a father figure at home or a male, period, in their life. So just to be here makes a big difference,” the dads said.

Because there’s nothing more disarming than walking up to a kid and saying: Why did the man fall down the well? Because he couldn’t see that well. It’s pure dad magic.

Cover Photo: Hill Street Studios (Getty Images)
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