Liberty Memorial Central Middle School's P.E.A.C.E. student group honored representatives of the Lawrence Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff's Office, KU Public Safety Office and Kansas Highway Patrol on Friday at the school.

As area law enforcement officers took a step forward on the stage at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School, students handed officers small, wooden plaques with a depiction of a badge and the words “protect and serve.”

Members of the school’s Conversation P.E.A.C.E. student group honored officers with the Lawrence Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas University Public Safety Office and the Kansas Highway Patrol who visited the school on Friday as part of Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.

After a presentation that included a slideshow of photographs showing the officers at work in the community and meeting with students, the group’s six-member leadership council presented the plaques to thank officers for their service and involvement. Since the group began two years ago, officers have visited students and taken part in some of their conversations, said the group’s sponsor, Rita Rials.

“In Conversation P.E.A.C.E., our students come together to talk about difficulties — racial issues, classroom issues, issues in the community — anything that they feel is troubling them,” Rials said.

The mission of Conversation P.E.A.C.E. (Purpose, Equity, Accountability, Character, Education) is to give students a place to talk about difficult issues and bring about a positive change through conversation. The group meets after school every other week and is open to all students.

Rials, a paraeducator at Liberty Memorial, said that officers have used their visits to the group’s meetings to talk with and answer questions from students. Rials said that building those positive relationships and opening up conversation is important, especially given the national climate on the issue of race and policing.

“So when it came around to Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, I thought this would be a good way to give back to them and to continue to build that relationship, because they have done many things to help our students here at LMCMS,” she said.

Following the presentation, officers visited classrooms at the middle school to speak about topics such as forensics, Internet safety and drug prevention. And, Rials added, some officers also stopped in physical education classes to play basketball with students.

Ozioma Ajekwu, a seventh-grader at Liberty Memorial and member of the group’s leadership council, said having the officers around made her feel good, and that she thought it was important to recognize them.

“They’ve been doing really good with their jobs, so it’s important that people know what they’ve been doing for our community,” she said.