Teacher turns arrest into a lesson

Cody Olsen Jul 4, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

Republish Article

You can republish articles in print or online. Simply copy the HTML below, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline, and credit to Cascade PBS. Republishing of the photos or videos embedded in an article can occur only if the photo or video is a copyright of Cascade Public Media ("CPM") and not of a third party. Photos and videos that are a copyright of CPM are not required to appear in the republished article, but if they are used, they must be embedded where they appear in the original article and must include the attribution to the CPM photographer.

You may reprint in any medium
You may edit only for tense and timeliness
If republishing in print you can edit for length if you follow our print republishing guidelines.
You may write your own headline
Include a byline and shirttail with credit and link to Cascade PBS
Include our tracking pixel
Remove if we ask

          <article>
            <header>
              <hgroup>
                <h1>Teacher turns arrest into a lesson</h1>
                <h2><p>Dennis Henderson, a civics and history teacher at Manchester Academic Charter in Pittsburgh, turned an altercation with a police officer into a classroom lesson for his students. NPR describes the incident in which, after Henderson yelled "Wow" as a police cruiser sped by, the officer turned the car</p></h2>
              </hgroup>
               <p>By <a href="/author/cody-olsen-crosscut-com/">Cody Olsen</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
            </header>
            <p>Dennis Henderson, a civics and history teacher at Manchester Academic Charter in Pittsburgh, turned an altercation with a police officer into a classroom lesson for his students. <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/05/05/393811818/the-civics-teacher-who-turned-his-arrest-into-a-classroom-lesson?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">NPR describes</a> the incident in which, after Henderson yelled "Wow" as a police cruiser sped by, the officer turned the car around and got into an altercation with Henderson, resulting in his arrest.</p><p>Henderson eventually won a lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Police Department, and used his arrest as a topic of discussion in his classroom — where he regularly tackles issues of race.</p>
          </article>

Dennis Henderson, a civics and history teacher at Manchester Academic Charter in Pittsburgh, turned an altercation with a police officer into a classroom lesson for his students. NPR describes the incident in which, after Henderson yelled "Wow" as a police cruiser sped by, the officer turned the car around and got into an altercation with Henderson, resulting in his arrest.

Henderson eventually won a lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Police Department, and used his arrest as a topic of discussion in his classroom — where he regularly tackles issues of race.

Our members' donations make local journalism happen.

Support once for $1

Support monthly for $7

Cascade PBS Passport
Mossback members-only newsletter
Monthly Viewer Guide

Support monthly for $25

Invitation to quarterly news and original programming video conference
Annual in-person meet-up with news & programming teams
Special event perks (reduced price or free tickets, cocktails, etc.)

Continue

By Cody Olsen

Cody Olsen was an editorial intern with Crosscut. He has a degree in Political Science from WWU, a passion for Journalism and a love for making movies on the side. This past summer he spent a few mont