More than half of the 65,000 armed robberies committed in Australia in the last 10 years have targeted small cash businesses, such as convenience stores, video stores and news agencies.
These businesses typically employ high school students for their cheap labour and many do not provide appropriate safety training – despite their statutory obligation to do so. Former NSW Commissioner of Police, Ken Moroney AO, is particularly concerned by this threat to young people.
“Small cash businesses do not employ young people out of reasons of social conscience, rather, because they are cheaper to employ than adults. Some young people who are still of school age work at night, on weekends and in a variety of locations and circumstances. Sadly, some find themselves at the receiving end of an armed robbery,” said Moroney.
Triple Logie Award winning documentary film-maker, David Goldie, has joined forces with Moroney to create an armed robbery safety program for students.
The pair spent a year researching and spoke at length with principals, teachers and students from five high schools, including three from the Northern Beaches, and found that around 80 per cent of students worked at businesses targeted by armed robbers.
“What was the real concern for us was the fact that hardly any working school students we spoke to received armed robbery training from their employer,” said Goldie.
They decided that they needed to adapt an adult armed robbery safety program Goldie produced almost a decade ago, to the specific needs of today’s senior students.
The program is called ‘Surviving Crime’ and includes an interactive DVD, workbook and online tests to ensure that participants are fully engaged with the material.
Christine Del Gallo, Principal of Mackeller Girls Campus in Manly Vale, believes the survival program is incredibly important for students.
“As many senior students work part-time jobs, I regard the safety instruction in this program as an indispensable part of senior studies,” she said.
What is frightening is that the people carrying out these robberies are far more likely to be drug addicts being driven by their addiction, rather than rational people only driven by greed.
People like Trish, a convicted armed robber and former heroin addict who turned her life around and started guiding young people away from the destructive path of drugs and crime, are included in the training.
“Students overwhelmingly voted Trish’s anti-drug message to be a vital part of the safety training. Sadly Trish passed away in 2006 but her family wholeheartedly supports her unlikely role in survival training… delighted that she is contributing to helping our youth in such a positive way,” said Goldie.
Goldie plans to continue to expand the program and ensure that more students are spared the physical and psychological trauma of being a victim of armed robbery.
“Those who survive remember it for the rest of their lives, the trauma never leaves you… You need to know what to do, and more importantly, what not to do, to be able to handle the situation in the best possible way” said Goldie.
More Info:
www.survivingcrime.com
By Jessie Goldie
