Lakeland Police Present First "Do The Right Thing" Awards for New School Year

The first "Do The Right Thing" Awards for the 2007/2008 school year were presented during a ceremony last Thursday. This is the eighth year of the DTRT program at Lakeland PD.

A total of five students were nominated for awards this time. Each student received recognition for their positive choices, and one student was deemed the overall winner for this period. Here are the students honored during the ceremony for their efforts to do the right thing in their lives.

From left to right: Blake Stone, Michael Fied, Jamie Gries,
Courtney Hancock, and Dalton Willis.

Overall Winner

Michael Fied - a 7th grade student at Southwest Middle School, was nominated for saving the life of a fellow student. He became aware that a fellow student had written a suicide note and was planning to end their life. Even though other students had seen the note and did nothing about it, Michael made a good choice and was the only one to report the matter to School Resource Officer Lori Edwards who was able to intervene and get the student safely into a treatment facility.

Other Nominees

Jamie Gries and Blake Stone - Jamie, a 6th grader at Southwest Middle School, and Blake, a 7th grader at SWMS, were nominated together for their combined efforts to do the right thing. These students found drugs on the roadway near their bus stop and turned the drugs over to School Resource Officer Lori Edwards. When they could have just kept the drugs or ignored the matter altogether, these students did the right thing by reporting the drugs the police.

Courtney Hancock and Dalton Willis - are both 5th graders at Carlton Palmore Elementary School. They were nominated together because of their incredibly cordial and polite behavior at school. They continually make the right choices in their behaviors and serve as exceptional role models for other students.

In a world where students are often viewed as always making poor choices, we congratulate each student and applaud their parents for teaching their children to do the right thing.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere