The Lakeland Police Department honored five local students during a quarterly "Do the Right Thing" awards ceremony at the police station this week.
Students were recognized for exceptional acts of character, positive citizenship, and expectional ethical behavior in situations where it would be just as easy to look the other way and not get involved.
Mr. Otis Anthony, Senior Director of Minority Relations with the Polk County School Board, was the keynote speaker for the ceremony.
Here's a listing of the students receiving DTRT awards this month.
Luv Allen - is a 6th grader at Blake Academy. During October, a student brought a gun onto the campus of Blake Academy. Many students were aware the gun was on campus, but no one reported it. Luv saw the gun in the student's backpack and told a teacher what she had observed. For doing the right thing in this situation with potentially dangerous consequences, Luv Allen was the overall DTRT winner for December!
Tariq Cowart and Wayde McClanahan - are 3rd graders at Dixieland Elementary School. Wayde witnessed a bicycle belonging to a school patrol student being stolen from the school. He attempted to intervene and prevent the theft, but the student continued away with the bicycle. Wayde and Tariq chased after the culprit to Dobbins Park where the student dropped the bicycle and fled on foot. Wayde and Tariq returned the bicycle to the school and notified the administrative office of the theft. Congratulations guys for getting involved and preventing someone else from losing their bicycle!
Joan Perez - is a 7th grader at Southwest Middle School. She observed a crumpled up piece of paper at school and took the time to check out what she thought was suspicious. Inside the paper was a $100 bill. Knowing the money did not belong to her, Joan turned the money into the front office. While it would have been easy to keep the money, Joan did the right thing in hopes of returning the money to the rightful owner. Thank you Joan for doing the right thing here!
Ryne Watkins - is a 5th grader at Southwest Elementary School. During the 06-07 school year, Ryne became a driving force behind a program at Southwest to collect pennies from the community to purchase soft-body armor for a police K-9 in Polk County. He gave up birthday money, collected change from family, friends, and neighbors and even asked businesses near his home to put out change jars to gather support from the community. His donations inspired other students to do their best in the project. Thank you Ryne for being so thoughtful and caring to help protect a police K-9!
- Asst Chief Bill LePere
Thank you Carla for taking the time to send your positive comments about the students. We certainly agree with you the kids are all terrific. It is great to know our students are consistently doing the right things in their lives.
Posted by: Asst Chief Bill LePere | December 18, 2007 at 08:48 AM