It's under control at Thornton

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:24PM

Blame us. A certain segment of our readership never needs much of an invitation to look down its collective nose at certain other segments, and in our final edition Sunday, we handed one to them.

On the back cover of the paper, we featured a photo of Thornton High School players celebrating their last-second touchdown to beat Lincoln-Way West.

In the background, another celebrant was captured en route to a high-five. He is wearing jeans, a Thornton jersey - and a gun.

Forget the fact that armed security is as common at Southland high school events as puppy-lovers clinging to each others' belt loops. The tskers began tsking immediately.

One voice mail intoned gravely, "I sure hope I'm not the only one that's concerned about this."

Another was less subtle:

"Hey, Phil, what's with the black guy with a gun on the back page of the paper?"

Here's what's with the guy, and the gun. And, if you noticed, the badge a bit further along his belt - though I'm guessing the always too-eager critics of our easternmost communities figured they knew all they needed to about the photo when they saw the "Sean Jean" logo embroidered on the pocket below the gun.

Marcus Patterson is the gun-toting celebrant. He is a commander in the Harvey Police Department, and he was working security at Saturday's game.

Neither the Harvey police nor Thornton administrators had any issue with Patterson's dress or comportment.

"He knew, on Homecoming, to show up in purple," Thornton principal Tony Ratliff said.

Patterson, Ratliff said, is well-known and popular on the Thornton campus, where the police working security are encouraged to wear Thornton colors.

"That's intentional," Ratliff said. "It's a family atmosphere. One school, one color, one family.

"There wasn't a person on that home side who doesn't know Cmdr. Patterson."

Granted, a lot of folks don't know a lot about guns, or telephoto lenses.

One e-mailer seemed to believe Patterson was celebrating with the players.

"What would happen," the e-mailer wrote, "if the weapon were to accidentally misfire during celebration? Football players ... are known to mosh together in excitement, as did this man in the purple jersey."

Patterson, in fact, was standing near the edge of the track that circles Thornton's football field, nearly 10 yards from the back corner of the south end zone. Telephoto lenses tend to compress images, making Patterson appear closer to the players.

As for the gun discharging, a friend of mine who has served in a Southland police department for more than 20 years discounted the possibility.

"I've been in car wrecks (while wearing a gun), I've been in fights, rolling around on the ground, with them," he said. "(Guns) take quite a bit. An awful lot. It's not going to go off.

"They really only go off if you pull the trigger."

Unfortunately, the hair-trigger critics of the world are far touchier.

But Saturday's facts are these: Great day - the temperature touched 80 degrees. Great game - Thornton won 32-27 in a match-up of teams that came in with 5-1 marks. Great fun - Thornton's Homecoming drew a large crowd of alumni.

Even the losing coach had a good time.

"I have a lot of respect for (Thornton coach and athletic director) Bill Mosel, and I have a lot of respect for his football program," Lincoln-Way West coach Mark Vander Kooi said. "Obviously, we'd like to have won, but as far as a game-day atmosphere, it was great.

"My wife was in the stands, and she said their fans were great. I never pay any attention to the P.A. announcer, but she even said he was very positive, too."

According to Ratliff, Thornton has worked very hard to make visiting fans comfortable, even going so far as to play a recording of the opponent's fight song at each game.

He also essentially adopts one visiting family each game, paying for their admission and concessions.

"I tell them to spend the money on pizza after the game instead," he said.

Ratliff, conscious of visitors' safety concerns around Thornton, also is planning to turn the school's driver's education parking lot into visitors-only parking during basketball season.

Thornton is working hard on its image.

Too hard to be undone by misreadings of the image on our Sunday cover.

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