As part of a recent class at Slippery Rock University, the professor showed a picture from the movie “Kindergarten Cop.” The students began to chuckle, and everyone turned to look at one of their fellow students.

When Jeff Hollidge isn’t taking education classes at Slippery Rock, he’s the police chief in Harrisville, located about five minutes from campus.

After more than a decade in law enforcement, Hollidge, 35, wants to become a teacher.

“My first thing out of high school, my objective was to go on to the police academy and be a police officer,” he said. “But I always had the teacher mentality.”

At Slippery Rock, Harris stands out from the other education students. In the cohort of about 30 students he takes his core classes with, he’s the oldest by about 12 years, the only male, and certainly the only one with a kindergartener at home.

Needless to say, he’s also the only one changing in and out of a police uniform immediately before and after class.

“It’s a lot of running around and kind of scrambling to get out of one outfit and into another and vice versa,” he said, laughing.

“When I first started, I didn’t want anyone to know what I do or anything like that. I just wanted to get my education. As people began to understand where I came from and what I do, they just kind of rallied behind me. Now everybody knows and everyone is so supportive.”

Hollidge grew up in Oil City and attended Clarion University and the municipal police academy at Mercyhurst College. He worked as a police officer first at Thiel College, then in Emlenton and then at the Venango County Sheriff’s Office.

Working in law enforcement, he could see children struggling with their behavior and in their home environments. He wondered if being a role model as a teacher could make a difference in their lives.

Hollidge, who lives in Plesantville, also became aware of the growing teacher shortage in Pennsylvania. In 2010, there were about 15,000 new teacher certifications issued – a number that dropped to about 5,000 for the 2020-21 school year. During that year, the state issued more permits for emergency teachers certifications – temporarily certifying people with bachelor’s degrees to teach – than it did standard teaching certifications.

“Knowing the very serious issue with the teacher shortage, it opened my eyes to not only my kids but all children in general and the quality of education that they are going to receive in the future,” he said. “It really gave me the desire to do everything I could to make an impact on that.”

Hollidge, and his wife, Eva, who is also a teacher, have two children, 5-year-old Brantley and 1-year-old Laiken.

At times, his lessons have dovetailed perfectly with what Brantley was learning in preschool and kindergarten, such as phonics and letter recognition. Hollidge is also able to use him to practice lessons – real world experience he can bring to the classroom.

“He was learning but he was also teaching me things I could do differently,” he said. “The other students, they’re like, ‘You’re so lucky you have your son at home.’”

Hollidge is considered a senior at Slippery Rock now and is on track to graduate in the spring of 2024 with a dual degree in special education and elementary education. He hopes to start a teacher job soon after, and ideally continue to work part-time in law enforcement during time off from teaching.

Thus far, he hasn’t run into any of his classmates in uniform, and many of them hope to keep it that way.

“They always joke around and say, ‘I don’t want to drive through Harrisville,’” he said, “‘because Jeff is going to pull me over.’”

Anya Sostek: asostek@post-gazette.com.

First Published: March 23, 2023, 10:00 a.m.