HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. — “I used to fight, mess with drugs,” Shoundarius Bogard said.
Bogard, 14, told WREG he used to stay in trouble.
“When I was in school I got caught with drugs in my book bag,” Bogard said.
The teenager was expelled from school until next year and had run-ins with the law. His life was spiraling out of control.
“We tell them about life, what it takes to be a man,” Dwight Harris, chief of police in Holly Springs, said.
Chief Harris stepped into Bogard’s life to help turn it around.
“The main purpose is to keep these guys from becoming criminals in the first place. That’s what we’re trying to do,” Chief Harris said.
Harris spends his own time and money to mentor about eight boys, between the ages of 11 and 17.
The young men meet with the police chief twice a month to discuss everything from peer pressure to sex education.
“He (is) not going to sugar coat you with it,” Bogard said. “He’s going to tell you the whole truth about all the things that you (are) doing wrong.”
These young guys said the program turned their lives around and gave them a closer look at reality.
“We (are) going to end up — we going to be dead or sitting up in a jail,” Bogard said about what he learned.
As Chief Harris drives around neighborhoods, he protects and serves. Tuesday, he said he knows he cannot save every child, but hopes his efforts make an impact on the young people’s lives.
“I want to live a life. I want to go to high school and go to college,” Bogard said.
Chief Harris challenged other adults in his community to mentor at least one child because it will make all the difference.
