Camden County NJ July 17 2021 Each fourth-grader looked up from their laptops with smiles when Coach Norm opened the door and walked into the bare summer-school classroom.

All eyes were on the coach — Norman Alston — as he, a larger-than-life character to a four-foot-tall fourth-grader rolled a chair up to the smaller-than-normal table made for elementary schoolers.

Usually the coach would be keeping watch at Lawnside School’s front desk; checking in visitors and checking in with kids as they change classrooms.

He’s the first person the students see when they arrive at school each day.

He’s the guy they can confide in about trouble with friends or at home.

And he’s the last person they wave goodbye to before heading home.

Lawnside School security chief Norman Alston holds a copy of his book, “My Bully, My Friend”.

While Alston isn’t a certified teacher, the former Camden cop has lots of lessons to share with the kindergarten through eighth graders who walk through the lobby.

Lawnside fourth-graders are studying Alston’s stories this summer.

His book “My Bully, My Friend” was chosen by teacher Monica Baltodona as the class’ summer reading project.

“I think it’s really cool that somebody I know wrote a book, and it’s about something I really care about,” fourth-grader Lauryn Price, 9, said, bouncing on a balance ball seat at the table the students shared with Alston.

The bubbly fourth-grader was the first to pipe up Tuesday with questions for the coach about how a story becomes a book.

“Some of the words I had in there I didn’t spell right,” Alston admitted, prompting kiddie giggles.

The class was shocked it took just two months for the rough draft to come together.

But it wasn’t an easy run for Alston.

Lawnside School security chief Norman Alston, center, is joined by his wife Tiffinnie Alston, as they sit with Lawnside fourth grade students while they read an anti-bullying book that Norman Alston wrote entitled, “My Bully, My Friend”.  The students have been assigned to read the book as part of the class’s summer reading assignment and Tiffany Alston helped edit the book and created curriculum for an anti-bullying program.

In March 2020, he was among the first wave of positive COVID-19 cases as the pandemic washed over South Jersey. He couldn’t eat for weeks, relying on electrolyte drinks to stay hydrated.

As his body fought the virus, he could do very little besides sleep and think.

“When I got sick, (God) downloaded it into me,” Alston said of the book.

He started writing about Al, the fictional sixth-grader who is eager but anxious to start over at a new school and leave his bully behind at his old school. The story takes twists and turns until Al has an epiphany about his bully.

At first, Alston could write just a few sentences at a time when COVID’s wrath would relent.

As he recovered, the writing sessions came more frequent and lasted longer. His wife Tiffinnie Alston had the first peeks at the initial drafts of the book that has Al building confidence and understanding his bully’s background.

“I’m probably hard on both of us more than anybody else,” said Tiffinnie Alston, recently retired from Prudential to focus full time on Kings Way International, the nonprofit service organization the Winslow Township couple founded in 2017.

Together, they’ve written plays and songs for those productions.

Lawnside School security chief Norman Alston holds a copy of his book, “My Bully, My Friend”, as he stands with his wife Tiffinnie Alston, who helped edit the book and created curriculum for an anti-bullying program.

“Literally within a couple weeks he had a really good piece of work,” she said. “I try to give him full credit, but he won’t let me.”

The book has inspired an anti-bullying program the couple produced through Kings Way.

As Norman Alston sat with the Lawnside fourth graders this week, the kids began to look at him a little differently.

“He was probably bullied a lot and then just made friends with the bully,” Darren Thomas, 9, theorized.

Darren gave the book a five-star rating for it’s “detail,” he said.

“I’ve been reading it all this summer since I got it,” Darren said.

The class of about 40 fourth-graders is tasked with reading it cover-to-cover, then picking an assignment to show their understanding of its message. Each student can decide to write a song, a diary entry or their own retelling of Alston’s tale with themselves featured as a new character.

Lawnside School security chief Norman Alston, center, sits with Lawnside fourth grade students Zander Dennic, left, and Darren Thomas, right, as the students read an anti-bullying book that Alston wrote entitled, “My Bully, My Friend”.  The students have been assigned to read the book as part of the class’s summer reading assignment.

As Darren gets deeper into the story, he’s also thinking about Coach.

The story they’re studying is a reflection of what their jovial coach has experienced in his life, and the hardships he’s helped Lawnside students and Camden kids navigate.

“Being a football coach and a police officer, and working at the school, these things come up,” Alston, a Camden High grad, explained.

He worked as a Camden Police officer between 1989 and 1997. He’s been a basketball and football coach in Camden, and started working for the Lawnside School in 2009.

“When I was a kid, we didn’t know what bullying was,” the author said.

“As I became a coach and a police officer … you realize things that happen to the kids.”

The primary message is for children, helping them to understand why they could be mistreated by another kid, and to remind them that a classmate who’s acting out could be going through their own quiet battles.

Norman Alston thinks there’s a message for adults, too: talk to your kids about their day and ask how it’s going in school, not just academically, but with their classmates.

The new author said he has at least two more books already downloaded into his brain, ready to hit the page.

The first is a sequel to Al’s story. The next is an equally as heavy a topic for young boys and their parents, Alston said.

“I have a book talking about how a boy can’t be the man of the house,” Norman Alston said.

“I think it’s going to be good reading for females in understanding that when (dads) leave their household, there are things kids go through,” Alston explained.

“They don’t get a chance to be a little boy because they grow up so fast.”

Until the sequels, Coach Norm will continue to autograph the copies Lawnside students are carrying around the school.

He’s nearby if the fourth-grade class needs a little help finishing their summer projects.

Carly Q. Romalino is a Gloucester County native who’s covered South Jersey since 2008. She’s a Rowan University graduate and a six-time New Jersey Press Association award winner.

Romalino is based at the Courier Post and covers South Jersey schools and education issues for the Courier Post, Daily Journal and Burlington County Times.

She hosts NJ Press Pass, a live social media-based interview show diving into what matters to South Jersey residents.

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