Grade 9 Students Prepare to P.A.R.T.Y

Tomorrow grade 9 students from the St. Paul Education Regional Division (SPERD) will be taught value lessons and skills on safe partying, Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth (PARTY). Organizer Mariette Mahe says young people are the most likely to die in alcohol or risk related deaths.

The event is held at the Rec Centre, were 140 kids will gather for presentations. “We start with a mock collision, in the morning, with the Fire Department, St. Paul Ambulance, Grace Gardens funeral chapel, the RCMP ATCO Electric, Victim Services, and crash victims.” Kids will participate in acting out the scenes, interacting with the actors and watching the mock collision. The idea being to give the kids a first-hand look at the effects of risky behaviour.

It’s not just focusing on the youths that have too much to drink at the bush parties, it’s also the designated drivers too. “We want them to make smart choices,” Mahe explains the idea is to educate kids not tell them to abstain, because in reality these kids will be exposed to and likely indulge in alcohol during their teen years. It’s better to teach them responsibility then to turn a blind eye and believe they will just say no. “Teach them that yes, you can have a drink or two, but don’t drink & drive. And there’s more than just drinking and driving, fights start when there’s alcohol involved and kids do more risky stuff with alcohol.”

One of the presentations hits close to home, Mahe says the kids will be seeing footage of a real accident that took the life of a young man from the Ashmont area in 1999. “The Darcy Peat Drowning video is a true story that happened at Floating Stone. There was a group of kids at Floating Stone, they partied the night before and the next morning they decided to go to the lake and fool around with their seadoos on the lake. It was May 1st so the ice was just off and the water was really cold. Two guys got on the seadoo and they weren’t wearing their life jackets, they started fooling around and one drowned.” What’s additionally tragic about this story is the young man’s sister was filming the boys from shore. There was a group of kids on the shore joking around about the water activities and when the young men fell in the water they teens back at shore didn’t take it seriously, but rather joked more. The footage the kids will see tomorrow is the actual footage taken from the sister on the shore and it is breathtakingly tragic. “You can hear the kids laughing and joke and then there’s silence,” explains Mahe.

Other presentations include a session on cyber bullying, sexual health, ATV distraction, Addictions, and crash survivor speakers.