Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
This message has been brought to you by your local high school drama students: Beware of strangers.
The age-old adage of “Be aware of stranger danger” was the topic of a series of skits performed last week at local schools by Sweet Home High School students.
It’s the holiday season, and children will be home alone at times, and they’ll be at malls, School Resource Officer John Trahan said. That’s why children should be remembering not to talk to strangers. Whom do we need to watch out for? Trahan asked elementary school students on Thursday. “Strangers,” the students shouted back.
The purpose is “to get the word out of the danger of strangers,” Trahan said. “The goal was to try to have the high school kids act it out so the kids would be able to understand it more.”
A teacher at Foster wanted Trahan to talk to her class about the subject, he said, and a districtwide presentation to elementary students grew out of it.
“(High School Assistant Principal Brad) Sperry said, ‘Geez, you ought to get high school kids to help act out the scenes. They’d have fun,'” Trahan said.
Trahan worked with teacher Nancy Ellis, counselor Julie Harvey and drama teacher Alan Brown to get a group of drama students who would be eligible to receive career-related experience for their portfolios.
He was looking for six students but he ended up with eight volunteers, he said. “They were really excited about it.”
The group had four days to prepare, Trahan said. He designed the scenarios based on materials he had, but “the kids get all the credit.” They made it happen.
It’s been about four or five years since the DARE program was discontinued locally, Trahan said, so programs such as these get some of the same messages out to elementary students that they haven’t had for awhile.
“My goal is to have more of these,” Trahan said. “I just don’t know what the subject’s going to be. I’m positive they all liked it today. They got it (the message).”
Having the high school students in front of the children was the key, he said. “I think it’s not only needed to get the point across, it’s needed for both sides.”
The high school students end up helping out the community and the grade-school students, he said. They deliver messages about how much fun they have reading and other positive activities.
The elementary students are exposed to the messages in a fun way, Trahan said.
Participating were Mary Bond, Dallin Holden, Kathi Wilson, Jonny Penner, Alex Whitlow, Tristan Terry, Amanda Miller and Justine Calhoon. Calhoon was unable to attend the programs on Thursday, though.
Trahan and the students explained that strangers are anybody “that you do not know.” A stranger can look like anyone, even like “your mother and father.”
In one scenario, a fourth-grader is walking home and confronted by a stranger. Jonny, the fourth-grader, reacts by running back to school to his principal.
In another scenario, a stranger invites a child to visit. The child runs away, looking for help. In yet another scenario, a stranger tries to grab a child who got separated from her parents at the mall. The child yells, bites and kicks until she can escape and then goes to a store clerk who calls security.
This situation is one where it is perfectly OK to bite, kick and hit, Trahan told the students during the scene.