Busloads of children danced with hip-hop energy into the auditorium at Ruskin High School May 18, capping a year of leadership and anti-violence training with their school leaders and the Kansas City Police Department.

The students ranged in age from elementary to high school, but not one of them, said Hickman Mills Executive Director of Academic Services Dr. Yolanda Cargile, was too young to be a leader.

Leadership starts now, she said.

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“Strong leaders are respectful,” she told them. “Strong leaders are responsible, and strong leaders understand that their actions impact others.”

LINC has been partnering with the POSSE — Peers Organized to Support Student Excellence — led by anti-violence program leader Ossco Bolton, to position youth to be able to be advocates for peace among their peers.

The celebration at Ruskin featured an appearance by Kansas City Police Department Major Kari Thompson, who came with a team of KCPD patrol officers, who she called her posse.

Here was another opportunity, Thompson said, for children and officers to meet, not in a law enforcement situation, but as caring members of the same community.

“These men standing here today,” she said as the officers lined up behind her across the stage, “are here for you.”

“My posse,” she said, “came to say congratulations, to say good job, kudos, to all of you for a job well done.”

The POSSE program, through LINC’s Caring Communities programs, worked with more than 400 students after school at nine schools across the Hickman Mills, Grandview and Center school districts.