BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — It’s prom season, and community members and law enforcement are stepping in to educate Capitol High School seniors in the area.

At Mike Anderson’s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana State Troopers put their acting skills to the test on Tuesday showcasing the do’s and don’ts when engaging with law enforcement, especially on a time of many distractions — prom night.

“Prom night definitely has the potential to offer a lot of you know, crashes, just reckless behavior. And it’s nothing that’s, that’s intentional. What we do is try to get out in front of it with some preventive training to ensure that they understand the dangers,” said Public Information Officer of the Louisiana State Police Shelby Mayfield.

Through lessons of proper etiquette, conversations of domestic violence, students like De’Jon Johnson were able to learn about many things and have conversations that are usually not held.

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“It’s very hard for me to not truly have these conversations with people because most people just don’t want to talk about stuff like that,” Johnson said. “Domestic violence among people my age is extremely common. Teenagers are temperamental. They barely know how to treat each other, let alone the wider society around them.”

Now after Tuesday’s event, Johnson says he will be taking in a few lessons, especially during prom night.

“I’m going to try to be a little bit more observant of negative societal signs and potentially try to help out somebody who may need it. But most importantly, I’m going to focus on having a lot of fun,” said Johnson.

Community members who helped put this event together said it’s important to educate but most importantly make students feel valued.

“It doesn’t really matter what we do in City Hall or in the state capital if we’re not investing in kids, particularly those in disinvested communities,” said Chairman of the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Foundation Clay Young.

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“They are the future. So, we want to make sure they have the education, make sure they have the resources, and prepare them for what’s up ahead,” said member of NOBLE Baton Rouge Chapter Christian Reed.

Other organizations that helped make the event happen were Leadership Baton Rouge Alumni who helped create the event with NOBLE in partnership with EBR Schools to learn about prom safety, etiquette and make good decisions, according to Brandon Kelly, chairman of Leadership Baton Rouge Alumni.

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