Gwyneth K. Shaw Photo
Adrianna Petrucci’s 4th-graders at Lincoln-Bassett School had only a few days to think up questions about India. When police Officer Maneet Bhagtana walked in on Tuesday morning, they were fairly bursting.
How do you say hello? one asked.
“Namaste” is the Hindi greeting, Bhagtana replied.
Have you ever ridden an elephant? another queried.
No, Bhagtana said, but she has ridden a camel.
“Very scary!” she added, demonstrating the up-and-down motion that makes hitching a ride precarious.
Bhagtana, 25, was born in Mumbai, India. Now in her third year on the beat in the Hill North neighborhood, she came to Lincoln-Bassett as the first speaker in a pilot program aimed at expanding students’ perspectives by showcasing the diversity on the city’s police force.
She was armed with an Indian flag, a PowerPoint presentation and a few props. (Click on the video above to see Bhagtana demonstrate how to use a chunni, or head covering.)
Bhagtana talked about Indian’s culture, geography, religions, languages and food. She also emphasized that the educational system is different from the ones the students are used to. She showed a picture of public school students sitting on the floor, then another of private school kids in a fancy classroom.
“Whatever you guys are getting here, appreciate it to the fullest, because they don’t have it there,” she said.
The cornucopia of international culture will continue over the next few months for the students. Others from the New Haven force, including Peruvian-born Officer Elizabeth Mazza, are slated to make similar presentations. On June 21, the 34 kids will travel to New York City for a visit to the United Nations.
An armful of colorful metal bangles fascinated the students.
Police Lt. Patricia Helliger said the program started at Lincoln-Bassett because it’s in the heart of a neighborhood that sees too much violent crime. Pushing the students to think about life beyond Newhallville, she said, is important. Helliger, who traveled the world as a flight attendant for Pan Am before becoming a cop, said she wanted to inspire students to travel, too.
“I thought it would help with the bullying,” she said. By exposing them to different kinds of backgrounds, “they might grow up to be adults who understand and respect other people’s cultures.”
It also helps kids to see police officers as people, she said. New Haven has a diverse group of officers, Helliger said, from Mazza and Bhagtana to cops with roots in Guatemala, Poland, Portugal and Jamaica, among other places.
If the pilot program is successful, Helliger hopes to take it to schools around the city.
Teacher Petrucci said her students were excited about Bhagtana’s visit, and the upcoming U.N. trip.
“This is really going to broaden their horizons,” she said.
Bhagtana looks at greeting cards made by Myqueen Horton and T’najia Bowling.
Each kid prepared a question for Bhagtana and made her a greeting card. They listened quietly to her discussion about Indian food — the farther south you go, the spicier it gets, she said — and the Bengal tiger, the national animal.
It was the accessories, though, that really caught their attention. When Bhagtana brought out her mother’s chunni, a gauzy, multi-colored cloth studded with spangles, little girls lined up to try it on. An armful of metal bangles, which are worn for weddings and other special occasions, drew interest, too.
Bhagtana gave a slender bracelet to each girl in the room — plus one to a boy, who wanted it for his mother.
Over everything, she emphasized education, a theme seconded by principal Ramona Gatison. When one student asked about college, Bhagtana told them that she graduated from the University of New Haven in 2007, then went straight to the police academy. With a little prodding from Lt. Thaddeus Reddish, Newhallville’s top cop, she acknowledged that she finished first in her class at the academy.
Bhagtana wraps student T’najia Bowling in a sari-style covering.
Bhagtana said her parents valued education above almost everything else, joking that they probably would have stopped talking to her if she hadn’t gone to school. That was the motivation for the family’s move to the United States, 15 years ago, she said.
“America is a land of opportunity,” she said.