In Astoria, middle-schoolers were the first students in the city to honor late Detective Steven McDonald in a ceremony Tuesday, with the hopes to keep his message alive. NY1’s Lindsay Tuchman filed the following report.

It was a patriotic scene in the IS 10 auditorium Tuesday.  There were students dressed in their school colors of yellow and blue along with the men and women in blue, all to honor the late NYPD Detective Steven McDonald.

"I was honestly so honored,” 8th grader Madison Moreno said. “Because a school like us, being able to honor a person, a police officer like him really means a lot because he was such a fighter."

Detective McDonald was paralyzed after being shot by a teenager while on duty in Central Park in 1986; he forgave the shooter and dedicated his life to teaching kids about non-violence.

McDonald died of a heart attack this January, so the middle school students decided to honor his memory by presenting his wife and son with a letter of condolences and a plaque.

"He advocated for peace even after the tragedy and he's just meant so much to everybody so that's why we wanted to bring them here,” 8th grader Natalie Juric said.

"I think at a time like this when so many people are opposed of opinions who want to riot maybe I think it's very important because we need to learn that peace is really the only way here,” Moreno added. “We need to use words not actions."

McDonald's son is now an NYPD officer himself, and is furthering his father's legacy.

"I just want all of you to know how special you are and I know my father would want you to know that,” Conor McDonald said to the students.

​ "In everybody there's a good heart,” Gabrielle Pantoja said after hearing the younger McDonald's words. “Everybody doesn't want anybody to get hurt so it's definitely going to strike something in people."

None of these students were alive when Detective McDonald was shot, but according to the principal the lessons that his story teaches are still extremely relevant.

"We're always inundated with those stories, about violence in the street, violence in certain states, bias violence,” Principal Clemente Lopes said. “We just want students to know that there's always another way."

Always another way; a message the students at IS 10 learned as they celebrated McDonald's life.