About 700 fifth-graders from nine Miami schools visited Jungle Island Friday to hear one important message: “do the right thing.”
The students were given a message that crime doesn’t pay – and they should always stand up against violence.
“The underlying message of anti-violence, we hope that comes through today, for the school year. Particularly with the bullying that goes on in the schools, and sometimes if it's taken to the next level, then we hear about it in the news and we don't like that,” said Jodi Atkison, the executive director of Do the Right Thing of Miami Inc.
Student Angie Rivera seemed to get it.
“Guns, like when we're little don't touch it, even if it's in the floor, don't touch it, run away,” she explained.
Rivera said that she knows someone is bullying someone else, she tells him or her to stop it.
Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa led the kids through a pledge to do the right thing, and all 700 or so students signed their names to do just that.
The pledge calls for no guns and knives, a year of peace, and no lives lost. After signing the large pledge board, students received a smaller version that they can wear around their necks or keep at their desks.
