R&B singer Trey Songz hit the right note with about 250 Richmond high school students today, delivering a message of self-control as part of a panel discussion on nonviolence.

You have to learn to walk away from trouble, the Petersburg native told students from each of the city's eight high school programs. He said students should consider one thing -- "five minutes of your life that could turn into the rest of your life" -- before doing anything rash.

The students were gathered at Thomas Jefferson High School to hear Songz, gangster-turned-philanthropist Noonie Ward, Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring and Richmond police Capt. John Venuti, among others, talk about the importance of living right.

"You make bad choices, they stay with you for life," said Ward, a one-time member of a Chicago street gang who now works with Songz on a program called Songz for Peace, which uses music to promote nonviolence to youth.

"It doesn't matter if your parents went to Harvard; if you make the wrong choice, that's you," he said.

For details, see tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch. -- Zachary Reid