Columbus Middle School football players all got a chuckle Wednesday afternoon when Columbus Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Duane Hughes told them Mayor Robert Smith used to “paddle him” when he was at school back in 1980.
The team had gathered in a CMS classroom to be introduced to about a dozen business leaders, ministers and public officials, including Hughes and Smith, all of whom were African-American men who had volunteered to be potential mentors to the football players and their fellow students.
“He paddled me for having a pack of cigarettes,” Hughes said. “That stuck with me all my life, so I stuck with him. I’m assistant fire chief now.”
He used the story to press on them the importance of surrounding themselves with successful people.
“If you look at these men that (are) in this room, we all know each other because we associate with each other,” he said. “Surround yourself with successful people. Instead of flaming people (insulting them), push them to succeed.”
It was just one piece of advice the team heard from the men in the room, who talked about the importance of focusing on academics and setting goals, particularly goals that don’t necessarily have to do with football.
It was the first step in the “Next Generation” program Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Cherie Labat has been working on for about a year with public officials, including District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks and Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton to get mentors in the community into the schools and form relationships with students.
“Whenever we have community leaders in school, it’s a win-win for students, for teachers, for the community,” Labat said.
Brooks said he got the idea from a similar program at schools in Florida and he, Shelton and Labat have been “tweaking” it to fit local needs.
“This is just the first stage of what we hope will get us going on this program,” he said.
Shelton said he wants to focus on getting police officers, who have specific training in mentoring, into the schools to work with the students.
“(We want them to know) they have options,” he said. “… Everybody’s not going to make it in professional football, but (there are) other careers.”
While the program is still in the works, Labat said she hopes the mentors will be in and out of the schools having lunch with the students.
Wednesday’s event lasted about 30 minutes, just long enough for the potential mentors to introduce themselves, but several of the visitors said that if nothing else, they hoped it made an impression for students to see fellow African-American men in successful communities here in Columbus, many of whom, Brooks pointed out, were the first African-American men in their positions.
“(These are) leaders, men, professional men of color who have achieved, and you can do that,” Brooks said after the event. “You don’t have to resort to drugs, crime. … You can be successful through hard work.”
City Planner George Irby specifically encouraged the players to reach out to them if they wanted to know about what each of the visitors do.
“I don’t know if you heard somebody in here today that kind of touched you that you want to know more or you feel like there’s somebody in this group that you would like to one-on-one, get together, talk to your teacher or principal or somebody to get in touch with Mr. Brooks and everybody here will make themselves available,” he said. “If we get one or two out of here that become successful because of something that we said, that would be a good thing.”
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