Just about everyone can remember their elementary school principal. The principal was the guy (or gal) that everyone made fun of.

Maybe you had a nickname for your principal, anything to make him seem a little less fearsome. In any case, you sure didn’t want to talk to him if you didn’t have to.

My principal at Winnetka Elementary in Crystal, Minn., was Mr. Tesdahl. Mr. Tesdahl walked with a limp and, unfairly, all of us kids made fun of him for it. We never made fun of him to his face, of course, because Mr. Tesdahl never talked to any of us. He and his limp would creep down the halls, never stopping to say hello or see how any of us were.

As a result, he became quite the mysterious figure, a Boo Radley if you will.

I can remember a cold November afternoon in 1982 when I got sent to his office. I was playing soccer during recess and Mike Wilary tackled me from behind. I got angry and jumped on him, elbowing him in the face. He shoved me away, and a nearby teacher grabbed me by my collar and led me to Mr. Tesdahl’s office.

I sat in his office for what seemed like an hour, waiting for him. He limped in and sat down. I was surprised he knew my name.

“So, Mr. Flakne,” he grumbled. “What happened?”

I told him my version of the story. He began writing on a slip of paper. He handed it to me and told me I was to take it home to my parents, have them sign it and bring it back.

Of course, I was way more afraid of my parents than of Mr. Tesdahl, but I had learned my lesson. But the rest of the students did not, and they continued to make fun of and fear Mr. Tesdahl right up until fifth grade.

Flash forward to 2001. All of us have grown up and the East Lansing Police Department and MSU Department of Police and Public Safety have become our Mr. Tesdahl - the only time we deal with them is when we are getting in trouble.

For years, East Lansing and MSUpolice, like Mr. Tesdahl, were not interested in what people thought of them. They busted our parties and gave us tickets because our cars overlapped the sidewalk by 1 foot, or because we had some unapproved furniture on the front porch.

If the only time we ever interact with them is when they’re busting us for something, it’s no wonder the police have a public relations problem. But it wasn’t always this way.

If you’ve been in East Lansing for a long time, you might remember a different time.

You might remember a time when your meter could run out and sometimes you didn’t get a ticket for as much as an hour You might remember a time when you could stumble home to the Brody Complex from a party on Spartan Street and the cops would simply drive right by you. You might even remember a time when police would show up at a party just to tell you to turn the music down. If you’ve been around East Lansing for awhile, you might even recall the happy, fun days of tailgating on Munn field.

All that has changed.

Over the years, there have been efforts on the part of our police to improve their public image. I remember the bold initiative of giving all police MSU caps to wear on Munn field. It was supposed to make them seem more friendly, but instead we got more burned couches and another riot.

There have been numerous community meetings between police and students, but those haven’t worked either. Do students really want to skip “Must-See TV” or a trip to the library to talk with some police they already mistrust?

I offer the police a different solution I know would work. Pick a high-profile officer and have them interviewed on television at halftime of football and basketball games.

Picture Dick Vitale talking with an officer, and the officer says, “Oh, I’m having a great time, Dick. We have the best fans in the Big Ten. Everyone’s having a great time here on the best campus in the country. I know the Spartans will come out in the second half and dominate the game.”

Sooner or later, police officers wouldn’t be seen as someone out to get us. They would be seen as fans like the rest of us. Sure it sounds simple, but many people watching at home would fall for it.

And maybe, sooner or later, students wouldn’t instinctively fear and dislike police. It’s no less simple than giving them different caps to wear but far more effective.

Young people, for the most part, have some instant ill will for authority figures. If the police acted more like neighbors and less like authority figures, it would go a long way toward solving their public image problem. Perception will become reality.

I know if Mr. Tesdahl stopped me in the hall to ask me how the afternoon soccer game went once in awhile, I and my fellow students wouldn’t have feared him so much.

Jack Flakne is an MSU alumnus and Haslett resident. He can be reached at jackflak55@yahoo.com.