By John Burton
RED BANK — Red Bank Charter School student Lamier Richardson knew to do the right thing and did it.
The 10-year-old fifth grader did a good thing when early in the school year he came to the assistance of a kindergarten student.
Lamier takes the same bus home as the kindergarten student, Aurora, and was asked to keep an eye out for the young girl, as the two shared the bus stop, Principal Meredith Pennotti explained.
But one day on the way home from school in September Lamier said he noticed that Aurora had gotten off at the wrong stop, and he immediately got off the bus to help her. “I thought she didn’t know where her house was,” Lamier said last week, explaining why he left the bus.
“Her eyes were watering,” and “she said, ‘I’m scared,’” he said last week.
The two spent about some time in the somewhat unfamiliar neighborhood,until they located Aurora’s home, where Lamier made sure she got in safely, and then he made his own way home.
Lamier modestly didn’t tell anyone about what he did, with school officials only learning about the young man’s actions when Aurora’s father contacted the school.
“He was amazed such a little boy would take such responsibility,” Pennotti said.
Lamier may not have sought attention for his good deed but he did receive some recognition for it. At the Nov. 11 Rutgers University basketball game, Lamier was honored for helping Aurora as the games “Knight in Shining Armor.”
Johnson & Johnson corporation and the university’s athletic department have partnered this year to encourage community organizations to submit the name of any K-8 grade student “who has shown substantial courage, commitment and/or compassion by selflessly helping others in their community,” according to the Knights in Shining Armor application.
Red Bank Charter School received 50 tickets to the game and Lamier was recognized during halftime and invited to sit with team members during the game.
All the attention left Lamier a little unsettled, he acknowledged, but it certainly impressed his classmates. “They said, ‘thank you for getting us tickets to the game,’” he said.
