The cautionary stories Steve Cronic told fifth-grade students involved real people from Hall County. The pro football player. The popular girl. The jail trustee battling addiction.

Pictures were projected on a screen of their faces in happier times, then later, after their lives were wrecked because of drugs or alcohol or poor decisions.

The athlete ended up broke and in jail. The popular girl was handicapped from a car crash. The jail trustee died from an overdose.

“Every choice we make has a consequence,” Cronic, the Hall County sheriff, said.

On Friday, 137 Mount Vernon Elementary School students listened intently to Cronic’s speech about making the right choices, then lined up to accept their diplomas for completing the sheriff’s 10-week education program, ADVANCE — Avoiding Drugs, Violence And Negative Choices Early.

In the last few weeks, approximately 1,100 students from 11 Hall County schools have heard the sheriff’s speech and lined up to shake his hand.

“These kids represent our future, and by giving them the tools to make good choices in their lives, they have the ability to do anything they want to,” Cronic said afterward. “They have their whole future in front of them, and one choice can change everything. Hopefully they’ll make the right decisions.”

Each year the sheriff’s office graduates more than 2,000 students from its ADVANCE program, Cronic’s customized version of DARE. The program, taught by the sheriff’s school resource officers, has its supporters in and out of the education system.

“I think it gets them better prepared for when they get to middle school and high school and they’re going to be confronted with these issues,” said Mount Vernon’s principal, Connie Daniels. “If they have this kind of foundation, hopefully they’ll be prepared to deal with it.”

Tari Mize, proudly snapping pictures during the ceremony, was one of dozens of parents who looked on as the children accepted their diplomas.

“My daughter thoroughly enjoyed it,” Mize said. “There was nothing like it when I was coming up. I think it really aids parents in giving children that extra guidance.”

The sheriff’s speech, with real-world, local examples of how drugs and alcohol can ruin lives, should resonate with the children, Mize said.

“They really need that to bring it home and make them think that it could happen to them,” she said.

“They’re going to remember that,” Daniels said. “They realize these are real people from Hall County, and that it didn’t happen in New York or California.”