Pastor Helps Couple Stop Son From Skipping School

Nick Rademacher’s parents sat around the dining room table one day in February trying to figure out how to keep their 17-year-old son from skipping school.

The junior was flunking all his classes at Greeley West High School and wanted to go to an alternative school.

The Rev. Dave Mundy offered the family a more radical plan: In exchange for a daily $1.50 lunch stipend, the former police officer and pastor of Greeley Missionary Baptist Church would follow Nick to school and sit in on all his classes.

“When we told Nick the plan, he kind of went into shock,” said Nick’s dad, Mark Rademacher. “He spent the whole weekend trying to talk us out of it.”

Two weeks ago, the pastor and the teen began walking to school, with Mundy trailing about five feet behind. In class, the pastor sits a few desks away and writes sermons.

“I know Nick can outrun me, but when I catch him I will use these,” Mundy said, jingling the handcuffs he still keeps from his former vocation.

The plan appears to be working, Principal Jana Frieler said in late March. Some of Nick’s teachers say they have noticed a positive change in Nick’s attendance and assignments.

Mark and Kathy Rademacher call the setup “tough love.”

“Some people think we are mean, but we just care about him,” Kathy Rademacher said.