On August 8, 2016, over 500 high school football players came out to participate in the second annual “Straight Talk” program, hosted by the University of Florida in conjunction with the Alachua County School System, and coordinated by the State Attorney’s Office. Santa Fe Police Department was in attendance as the program was held at Touchdown Terrace on UF’s football stadium field. Straight Talk’s director, Darry Lloyd, deputy chief investigator and public information officer for State Attorney 8th Judicial Court, initially created this program as a mentoring tool to guide these young men in the right direction, and away from peer pressures that can often lead them astray. It is already proving to be a success partially indicated by the growth in the number of participants. The kids that came out interacted with the Santa Fe College Police Department and other law enforcement officials, by participating in traffic safety games and learning the art of sportsmanship.
According to Lloyd, “the Straight Talk Program for football players is a way to rally them to be leaders, both in the classroom and among their peers”. Santa Fe College Police Lieutenant Ryan Woods was one of the speakers at this year’s event and stated, “the first year we had a great turnout, but this year beat those numbers.” He also said, “Its good to see the program growing. Its important that these young men want to be a part of a something that can teach them more of the skills they may need, not only to go further in their education, but to survive in the outside world and deal with some of the pressures of life in general. Peer pressure can be something hard to stand up to, but programs like Straight Talk can help them to do just that.” He urges everyone to go their social media pages and help with the programs successes by using the hashtag #BeYou.
For more info on this program, contact Dep. Chief Investigator Darry Lloyd via the State Attorney’s office at 374.3670.
For other Santa Fe College Police Department programs, contact Santa Fe College Police Chief Ed Book at ed.book@sfcollege.edu .