School Features

Fourth-grader Johnny Lovick rolled out of bed in the early morning cold in his grandmother’s ramshackle home in the middle of a Louisiana cotton field.

School wouldn’t start for hours, but in the dirt-poor South, everyone had a job to do, no matter how old or young.

Cotton had to be picked and chopped, chores had to be done. No matter how cold or hot it was, no matter how miserable the boy felt, the work never stopped.

With sparse food, no running water, no electricity, and an outhouse 100 feet away from the tiny sharecropper’s shack Lovick called home, life looked bleak.

Nobody looking at the boy would see a future state legislator, a city councilman, state patrolman or a county sheriff.

Nobody, that is, until a sheriff came to talk to Lovick’s class. “Never give up,” he told the students.

“He looked directly at me, and said, ‘I don’t want you to give up.’” Lovick recalled. “He knew where I lived. He knew exactly how incredibly poor we were.”

Lovick took that advice to heart, graduating high school at the age of 17, joining the Coast Guard, then spending three decades with Washington State Patrol before being elected Snohomish County Sheriff in 2007.

During that time, Sheriff Lovick also served five years on the Mill Creek City Council, then joined the Washington State Legislature.

Last week, Lovick talked to students at Harbour Pointe Middle School about the importance of his DDFF formula – determination, discipline, faith and focus.

Without those factors, he said, he never would have overcome the crushing poverty of his early years.

Without that sheriff years ago believing in a determined little boy sitting in a Louisiana classroom – and Lovick believing in himself – he never would have realized his own childhood dream of becoming a sheriff.

Harbour Pointe Middle School sixth-grader Komal Mand holds a photo of the sharecropper shack in the middle of a cotton field, where Sheriff John Lovick grew up in poverty. A message of hope and an admonition to never give up, no matter how hard the path, inspired Lovick to realize his goals – including his boyhood dream of becoming sheriff.

“Everything I tried to do, I’d go for it all out,” he said. “You would have to tie my hands behind me and my feet to my hands to stop me once I’m determined to make it.”

Students should come to class focused entirely on learning, Lovick told them.

“That’s your job here,” he said. “Never mind that bad guy from last week (the report of a man with a rifle that put HPMS, Kamiak and Columbia on lockdown). You come to learn, focus on studying, and be determined to succeed.”

Lovick showed teacher Amy De Klyen’s sixth grade students a large photo of the now-vacant shack where he grew up.

“There was a tank right here,” he said, pointing to the lower right corner. “The water would run down the gutters from the roof, and that was our drinking water.”

Those electrical wires didn’t exist when Lovick lived and worked there, he said.

It was discipline and determination that helped the young Lovick see a world beyond that crushing poverty, he said.

Merrick Corpening talks about Sheriff John Lovick’s goal-reaching strategies of determination, discipline, faith and focus.

Lovick told the Harbour Pointe sixth graders how important it is to never lie, always tell the truth, no matter what, even when they make a mistake – in fact, especially when they make a mistake.

He pointed to former legislative colleague and now state superintendent Randy Dorn. Every student knew of Dorn’s highly publicized “mistake” of driving under the influence of alcohol.

While some parents and taxpayers at the time were ready to crucify Dorn, Lovick admired his courage.

“His lawyer said he could have his punishment reduced, or plead not guilty and have a good chance of getting off,” Lovick said.

“But Randy Dorn knew he was guilty. He knew he had made a mistake, and he wanted to admit it and make amends.

“I think mistakes improve performance,” he said. “Superintendent Dorn is now visiting classrooms, talking to the students about what he did and why it was wrong – he’s not hiding from what he did.”

That brings up another F – forgiveness, Lovick told the students.

“We all make mistakes. You can’t live without making mistakes, “ he said. “The important thing is to admit it, to always tell the truth, to make amends and move on.”

It’s as important to forgive ourselves as it is to forgive others, he said.

“You can’t cry over spilt milk. We all have to move ahead,” he said. “Life is about moving  forward and feeling good about the good things we’ve done.”