Fourth through sixth graders at Kawana Elementary School in Santa Rosa have completed the G.R.E.A.T. – Gang Resistance Education and Training – program. Take a look at the photos from their graduation ceremony Thursday.

 The program, established in Arizona in 1991 and implemented nationally two years later, is new to the Santa Rosa Police Department. Kawana Elementary students are the first to graduate from the program, but students at classes Lincoln Elementary School and Roseland Elementary Schoo are also participatingl.

 The focus of the program is to encourage positive social behavior, social responsibility and decision making. Officers who lead the sessions talk about bullying, controlling anger and respecting others.

 The Santa Rosa Police Department is contributing the salaries of the three instructors who lead the sessions during their normal work hours.

 The officers, who are gang investigators with the police department, were trained to be certified G.R.E.A.T. instructors.

 For more information on the program, go to http://www.great-online.org/Default.Aspx