The sixth grade just completed their L.E.A.D. training. L.E.A.D. stands for Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence. It’s a program where police officer are trained to teach young people about the consequences of drugs, alcohol, smoking/vaping and bad decisions. At Patrick M. Villano School, students also learned how to stick up for themselves and others as well as how to avoid peer pressure.
“During L.E.A.D., police officers came into our classes and taught us how to avoid bad decisions. I learned a lot from L.E.A.D.!” Sacha Salvador said.
Emerson police officers kept the L.E.A.D. lessons fun by turning them into fun activities like acting out scenes and examples of consequences from bad decisions.
“Though L.E.A.D. taught us lessons, I wasn’t bored. I had fun learning because the lessons were interactive,” Salvador added.
With their knowledge from the L.E.A.D. lessons, students completed an end of training project. Students had a choice. They could make a picture of a L.E.A.D. graduate and show how the graduate makes good decisions, write an essay about what was learned in L.E.A.D., or create a poster about a lesson learned from L.E.A.D.
“The project was simple to do. I had fun doing it. All of L.E.A.D. was great and very educational,” Josheau Feingold said.
