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Butler Tech Family Rallied Around Student During a Difficult Time [LINK] 2020 graduate Kobe Seay joined the Mt. Healthy Police Force in Cincinnati Kobe Seay walks unassumingly into Butler Tech’s Public Safety Education Center and is promptly greeted by several staff members as “officer” and “sergeant.” Almost immediately, he approaches the plaques on the wall displaying the Brian Dulle Award winners and finds his name. Proud and humble, he gives his million-dollar smile. As a black boy in the post-Jim Crow era of Alabama’s deep south, Seay didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a police officer like many boys do. In fact, he remembers times that he feared the police that patrolled the poor, crimeriddled neighborhoods in which he was raised. “I was raised by a single mom. She worked multiple jobs to make ends meet and I can remember sleeping in cars to stay warm as we navigated between homes,” Seay said. “She sacrificed everything to give me a fighting chance, so I made a vow to leave that life and never return.” After high school, Seay enlisted in the Armed
SPRING 2022
Forces with the goal of earning enough money to provide his mother a better life. “I ended up doing four tours in the United States Army, three to Iraq and one to Kuwait,” said Seay. “In the beginning, it was about the money for my mom. But after 10 years, I realized I really loved it. I thrived on the structure and discipline.” Following his active duty, Seay continued to return overseas as a contractor but admits that those experiences began to weigh on him. “I made the difficult decision to take my experience back to the civilian world where I could lay roots and finally begin a family of my own,” he said. In the months and years that followed, Seay dabbled in various jobs and college courses. He earned an associate degree in computer science but decided it wasn’t feeding his passion. He pursued education in physical therapy, but once again found that it wasn’t his calling. Finally, in the fall of 2019, a college advisor suggested Seay get back to his military lifestyle by enrolling in the police academy.
