Sixty Clearview Elementary fifth-graders celebrated their completion of the KIDS Choice program during a graduation ceremony held at the school last week.

 

KIDS Choice is a 12-week curriculum for fifth grade students to learn about bullying, internet safety and drug prevention and awareness. The acronym KIDS stands for kindness, intelligence, decency and safety, focusing on the positive choices students have available to them. 

 

Sherburne Co. Officer Todd Schuster taught the program to the students, which was developed by Sherburne Co. in 2009. The program covers bullying prevention, cyber bullying, online games and social media sites, drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

 

Principal Sheri Rutar welcomed the audience, after which Schuster explained the KIDS Choice program and what is taught during the 12 weeks students spend in it.

 

“KIDS Choice provides students with the opportunity to practice what they might do in a situation before it happens in real life,” he told the audience.

 

After the completion of the program each of the students had written an essay about what they’d learned, which they then read to their respective classrooms. Grace J., Evan K. and Lincoln O.’s classmates choose them to read their essays during the ceremony.

 

Grace told the audience KIDS Choice had been a positive experience for her and thanked the program for teaching her about drug awareness.

 

Evan said he thought KIDS Choice was important and explained what the students learned in each of the topics the program covers.

 

“I think KIDS Choice is important because it really helps children in the future to make their own choices,” said Lincoln. “It helps you stay away from drugs and lead a happy, healthy, normal life.”

 

Dressed in matching white tee-shirts sporting the colorful KIDS Choice logo, the students were presented with certificates of completion and then together sang the new song, Kid’s Choice Song, some of the words of which were written by music teacher Diane Jones, who also conducted the students.

 

Sherburne Co. Deputy Sheriff Don Starry closed the ceremony by congratulating the students and asking them to remember what they’ve learned.

 

“Although this is a celebration it’s not the end,” he said. “KIDS Choice has taught you a number of skills. In addition to learning how to protect yourself you also learned how to protect others.”

 

“These skill sets are going to serve you well today and throughout your life.”