PR04-004

Date:

March 1, 2004

 
Young Middle School Students Accept High Honors Following Sheriff’s Office G.R.E.A.T. Program
 

The seventh grade class at Jean Childs Young Middle School had a G.R.E.A.T. day last Friday, when deputies from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office gathered in the school gymnasium to salute their completion of the national Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program. In a continuing effort to educate youth on the dangers of gang activity in the their communities, and at school, the Sheriff’s Office devoted thirteen (13) weeks of specialized classroom training in the area of gang resistance and positive image building techniques.

Deputy Melinda Williams, who works with the Sheriff’s Office “Community Relations Section”, taught the G.R.E.A.T. program at Young. Deputy Williams is one of several certified G.R.E.A.T. instructors who devoted both time and talent in teaching middle school aged children the consequences of gang violence, while encouraging them to make positive choices in life.

Gang Resistance Education and Training is sponsored by the United States Office of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. G.R.E.A.T. was founded in 1991 by the Phoenix Police Office and a middle school principal. Following a successful pilot program in seven school districts in Phoenix, the program’s popularity became highly acceptable in the law enforcement and educational communities. Today, the G.R.E.A.T. program is taught in forty-eight (48) states by uniformed law enforcement officers to seventh and eighth grade students.

Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett introduced the G.R.E.A.T. program to Fulton County schools back in 1995, after learning of its growing popularity during a crime prevention conference in Washington, D.C. The G.R.E.A.T. program earned rave reviews at the completion of the department’s first program, taught at Paul D. West Middle School in East Point in 1996.

The Fulton County Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 64, which funded the G.R.E.A.T. program at Young Middle School, has been a dedicated partner in the fight to reduce gang violence throughout the community. F.O.P. President Howard Billingslea was on hand Friday afternoon for the graduation honors. Each seventh grade student received a G.R.E.A.T. t-shirt and a personalized G.R.E.A.T. “Certificate of Accomplishment.” The G.R.E.A.T. program has been a tremendous success at Young Middle School, and other area schools throughout Fulton County.

Sheriff’s deputes continue to teach G.R.E.A.T at Turner and Sylvan middle schools in Atlanta, as well as Sandy Springs and Bear Creek middle schools in Fulton County.

For more information, please contact Lieutenant Clarence Huber at (404) 730-4148. Lieutenant Huber can also be reached on his digital pager at (404) 742-6798.