Students at Central High School, in Providence, are having a class, but it’s not their usual history period. They’re in the auditorium, and the topic is conducting their lives with tolerance, respect for one another and with a plan for their future.

State police Sgt. Wilfred Hill is trying to reach the kids with stories from his own life. He tells them that he knows it may not be cool to care about what he and the other speakers are there to tell them. Just listen, he asks, because he’s been where they are.

Hill grew up in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and says that when he was 13 his biggest goal in life was to just fit in. A photo was taken that year of the 28 boys on his football team. Today 11 of them are locked up, seven are dead and five are known drug dealers. Only five of the original group are fully functioning members of society. He tells the students that he has a brother who became a crack addict, getting straight only after being stabbed and doing a stint in a rehab program.

It’s tough growing up amid violence, he tells the group. But he’s living proof that it can be done successfully. He’s firm with the kids: No excuses, no one else is to blame for your misfortunes and problems. He doesn’t want to hear “I’m from the ’hood,” or issues of race or kids blaming parents when they get in trouble. “Don’t take the easy way out,” he challenges them. “You have to have a plan” for your life. “What kind of benefit plan comes with a gang?” he asks.

State Trooper Herbert D. Tilson, a graduate of Central High School, and Mirlen Martinez Mal, a lawyer at Roger Williams University and a member of the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias, also speak to the students.

The idea of reaching out to kids who live in neighborhoods where there is violence originated with Sandy Riojas, a fifth-grade teacher at Martin Luther King School, in Providence. Col. Brendan Doherty, the state police superintendent, and Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman thought the idea of opening a dialogue between the police and the students was a good one. They have brought in speakers for the students at Martin Luther King School, an elementary school, and Hope and Central high schools.

Next, says Doherty, they plan to the take program into Pawtucket and Cranston. “We wanted the students to see a face,” he says, “to see people who grew up in neighborhoods like them” and that “good things come to those who do the right thing.”