Central High School Receives Buckle Up Award

The "Buckle Up" campaign was initiated by Sheriff Wendell Hall in 2002 and has been a great success by lowering the number of traffic fatalities among high school aged drivers in Santa Rosa County. Sheriff Hall joined forces with other agencies including the United States Navy at Whiting Field, each of the student body's, Navy Department of Defense police, and the Santa Rosa School District. The agencies share the responsibility of monitoring each of the high schools on a monthly basis by checking to see how many students have their seat belts on as they arrive and depart the school grounds. These figures are then computed to determine what school has the best compliance record for that particular month. For the month of September Central High School won the award, which was presented today to the student body president Miss Gretchen Cotton and her principal Kenneth Owens in the form of a plaque. The school only had one student and one parent out of compliance for the entire month. The award was presented on October 25, 2006 by Captain Joan M. Platz, commanding officer of Whiting Field in a small ceremony conducted at the school along with an array of coffee and refreshments. Attending the ceremony was Deputy Danny Michaels the Central High School resource officer, DOD officer Tony Martineau, assistant principal Benjamin West, and School district representative Bill Price.