Straughn High School has teamed up with the Covington County Children’s Policy Council to recognize students that go above and beyond normal means of kindness.

Character In Action is an incentive to encourage students to do something positive for their home, community or school.

“I first learned about the CIA program at our yearly Children’s Policy Council conference in July 2017 provided by the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education,” CCCACC Executive Director Susan Short said. “This recognition program first began in Lowndes County Children’s Policy Council by Judge Adrian Johnson. They wanted to recognize county youth under the age of 18 who were making a positive contribution to their home, school or community above and beyond normal.”

When Short heard Johnson’s presentation, she said that she immediately thought it would be wonderful to implement something like it in Covington County.

“We are trying to give incentives for certain behavior,” Short said. “We want to give students some public recognition to show them that doing the right thing goes a long way.”

SHS principal Donny Powell said that he had already planned to start a similar program.

“We were going to start the SHS Notice Program where teachers recognized students that were doing good deeds in school,” Powell said. “Then Mrs. Short came up to me with the idea of Character In Action and we thought it would go hand in hand.”

The incentive of the Character In Action program is that the student chosen for the month will receive $50.

“I think in a lot of school systems we focus too much on the negative,” Powell said. “So now I think it is time that we focus on the good, because there is a lot of good in our school.”

Examples of what could be constituted as exceptional character include helping a fellow student in need, displaying kindness to someone who is hurting, cutting an elderly neighbor’s grass, planning a fundraiser for a needy family or volunteering at a nursing home.

“We really think that this will be a great thing for Straughn High School,” Powell said. “And hopefully it will be something we can continue through the years.”