Miami-Dade Students Honored For Speaking Up, ‘Doing the Right Thing’ – NBC 6 South Florida

When a classmate brought a pellet gun to school, 9-year-old Randy Clark was scared.

“I thought he was gonna shoot me with it to be honest,” said the Colonial Drive fourth grader. He told his teacher.

Eleven-year-old Derek Rojas foiled a plan to start a fire on his school’s campus.

“I had to tell one of the teachers,” he explained. “The teacher immediately told the principal.” 

When somebody pointed a fake gun at 14-year-old friends Brianna Ramos and Zoey Trillas after school, they did not keep quiet.

“We just thought the right thing to do is go to the school the next morning and report it as quickly as possible,” said Ramos, a Hialeah Gardens eighth grader. “‘Cause we were really scared.”

All four students are among those being celebrated for “doing the right thing.” They took pictures and awards in a ceremony at Chief Clarence Dickson Police College Auditorium Thursday morning.

Miami Police Chief Manny Morales lauded their courage and spoke of what their actions mean, especially in light of what’s happening in the country.

“Unfortunately due to the circumstances in our nation where we see the proliferation of mass shootings everywhere, not only in schools, but in other places, that there’s kids that are not afraid,” he said. “They’re not afraid to go to school, they’re not afraid to do the right thing, and they’re not afraid to keep one another safe.”