Sheriff's Office rolls out program to keep kids on right path

FRANKLIN – The St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office, working with the parish’s School Board, has a new tool to help young people stay out of trouble.
Sheriff Gary Driskell, who shared a Parish Courthouse lectern with Superintendent Dr. Rachael Sanders, on Monday made the official birth announcement for the Futures Project, a program focusing on helping youngsters learn about the consequences of bad decisions.
“We want to be friends with them and share knowledge with them and keep them on the right path,” Driskell said.
The project’s curriculum, developed by Lt. Oscar West and Sgt. Ashleigh Wilson of the Sheriff’s Office, is already underway for eighth- through 12th-graders in the school system’s alternative program, for fifth-graders at M.E. Norman Elementary in Morgan City and Raintree Elementary in Baldwin, and students at Immanuel Christian and Central Catholic.
The Futures Project is being launched as local governments grapple with high levels of crime committed by young people and the high cost of placing juvenile offenders in scarce detention beds around the state.
The 10-lesson curriculum has been developed and funded by the Sheriff’s Office working with the School Board.
“The program addresses topics including substance abuse prevention, bullying, conflict resolution, relationship repair, decision-making, self-control and future planning,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a handout at Monday’s roll-out.
West quoted a 2019 statement by Dr. Karyn Purvis of the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University: “Behind every unwanted behavior is a need.”
“We begin to understand that when we can address those needs,” West said, “then we can create a path where we can meet those students’ needs.”
The program begins with building a relationship with the students, Wilson said.
“We want the kids not only to think about now, but also the choices they make now and what it can lead to in the future.”
Sanders noted that the school system has traditionally made substance about education part of the fifth-grade curriculum.
“The futures project just sort of takes our traditional curriculum and moves it toward, honestly, the future and the dangers our kids face these days,” Sanders said.