Innisfail students have become a vital part of the solution to crack down on crime in the community.
Young people at three local schools have become fully involved in the Innisfail RCMP’s new Student Crime Stoppers Program (SCSP), which was officially launched last September after receiving approval from town council earlier in 2010.
“They absolutely love it,” said Rose McQuay, principal at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School. “It has given them skills and strategies to implement in their daily lives when faced with difficult choices. I love the program because it gives them a personal relationship with Const. Rick Buisseret.”
Prior to last fall the program had been “informally’ in place for several years at the schools, said Buisseret, who is the local detachment’s community school resource officer. He said Innisfail RCMP had posted notices on school bulletin boards on an informal basis.
But last year an annual performance plan was presented to town council and a three-step crime prevention strategy was presented and approved.
Council agreed to formally create the SCSP, begin a joint bike patrol with the town’s community peace officer and increase referrals to the Restorative Justice Society, a group of community volunteers who conduct forums with accused youth offenders instead of putting them through the court system.
The SCSP began at three Innisfail schools with an implementation strategy on how best to attract students’ interest while considering the uniqueness of each school and the different age groups.
At Innisfail Junior Senior High School (IHS) the institution’s secretary is given a written notice of a mischief related “Crime of the Week, and it is read to the student body over the public address system. The notice is then posted on a designated bulletin board. The process is repeated at St. Marguerite.
However, officials at Innisfail Middle School (IMS) wanted more involvement from the children and the program’s implementation was different, said Buisseret.
He said there is a meeting each week with students from each grade who are given a copy of the Crime of the Week. Two students then read the notice over the public address system. The notice is finally posted on a designated bulletin board.
“The middle school is an easy school to get into. The rapport is good because of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. They (students) know it (SCSP) is not a scary program,” said Buisseret.
He said after seven months he believes the program is a success, even though he does not yet have statistics to track the number of crime tips received by the RCMP. He encourages students to talk to him personally. However, students can also continue to call the Crime Stoppers tip line.
“I gauge the success in that it gives students ownership of what happens in their community and that they can make a difference, and that they are responsible for the quality of life in Innisfail,” said Buisseret, adding that previous consultations with student councils will now have an added special importance. “I meet with student councils to talk about what our priorities are and for them to tell us what we should do. They love that, to tell us what we should do.”
Meanwhile, students say they are already enthusiastically attached to the program, believing they have a right to claim ownership of a community-based initiative that will make their school and town safer places to live.
“It has made a difference, for sure,’ said Emma Heistad, a Grade 8 student at St. Marguerite. “It has given kids more knowledge about all the bad things in Innisfail. And Rick (Const. Buisseret) is cool.”
Heistad’s classmate Brett Dach added it was a beneficial program for young students to participate in, largely because Buisseret makes himself so approachable.
“If we know something we can tell him. We get to know him. He is safe to talk to,’ said Dach. “It’s good kids are active in this because the kids at school are their peers, and not the adults’ peers so they will know more.”
