By LEONARD GRAY

KILLONA – All the trappings were present – proud relatives and a solemn string of graduates garbed in caps and gowns with “Pomp and Circumstance” playing in the background.

Law enforcement and educational officials touted satisfaction at the achievements of the progressive program’s members.

The St. Charles Parish Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Rodney Lafon, was in attendance, along with the graduates’ principal, teachers and tutors. There was an inspirational guest speaker, and honor graduates gave speeches. In the audience, proud family members dabbed away happy tears.

Yet these graduates had a different, and more challenging path to achieving their General Equivalency Diploma. They are all behind bars, either serving their sentences for various crimes or awaiting trial on their charges.

The Nelson Coleman Correctional Center was the site where nine inmates accepted hard-earned GED’s while their families looked on. These included Roy Alexander, Garrett Farrell, Idaida Kalili, Michael King, Johnny Robertson, Brandon Stein, Ralph Williams and honor graduates Michael Lawson and Robert Dugars.

“I’m proud of him doing the right thing,” commented Marilyn Harris, mother of Ralph Williams. “We’re feeling good.”

The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office has conducted a GED program in the parish correctional center since 1979. It was only part-time in the old jail on the third-floor of the courthouse, six hours per week. However, once the new correctional center was built, the program has vastly expanded. It boasts 200 students, working five days a week, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

All this keeps Adult Education Coordinator Shirl Cook, teacher Barbara Kinsey and paraeducator Sylvia Joseph quite busy, along with program director, the Rev. Gary Bolden.

During his speech, Michael Lawson said, “I never believed this day would come with the life I had been living.”

Sheriff Greg C. Champagne addressed the graduates and said, “If we bring people to jail and don’t do anything to make you better, we haven’t done society any good.”

Champagne also pointed out the program gave the students the ability to turn their lives around and stand up against the temptations awaiting them on the outside.

Trudy Dugars, mother of Robert Dugars, said her son made good grades “until he got to be 16 and what other people said meant more.”

The Rev. Johnny Magee, himself an ex-con, told the graduates, “You are what God says you are. You are a peculiar people, heirs to a royal priesthood.”

Following the solemn march from the end of the ceremony, graduates enjoyed a brief reception and reunion with their supporters.

Then it was back to the cellblocks.