OFFICERS HEAD BACK TO SCHOOL
Campaign to end distracted driving calls on Ottawa students as ‘ambassadors of change’
Kids teaching kids. That’s why the Ottawa Police Service is excited about the Leave the Phone Alone distracted driving campaign launching in the Ottawa Catholic and the Ottawa-Carleton district school boards.
The Ottawa police believe a culture change around distracted driving is required and that kids need to buy in at a young age.
“I was ecstatic when Chapel Hill principal Deanna Perry told me that her Grade 5 students were studying distracted driving after the initial police launch,” said Ottawa police Sgt. Denis Hull.
Perry told the police that resource teacher Eleanor McCormick-Dawson’s Grade 5 class was making its own project on distracted driving, and was going to present it to fellow students.
“We can’t ask for more than this,” Hull said. “It’s like they’ve been deputized as our very own ambassadors of change, spreading the message across the entire English Catholic school board in Ottawa. She told two friends, he told two friends, and so on and so on.”
Through the leadership of Hull, the education component of the Leave the Phone Alone campaign is what makes it different from what other police services in the country are doing in terms of distracted driving. This new element provides age-appropriate distracted driving messaging to students in elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities across the city.
“They are society’s future drivers and texters,” Hull said.
“We need to educate kids about the dangers of distracted driving before they even get their licences. More than that, we want our youth to be the agents of change by reminding their parents and friends to leave the phone alone while driving.”
The Ottawa Police Service launched the school kits on Feb. 2 at Sir Wilfrid Laurier High School and Chapel Hill Catholic Elementary School. This phase of the campaign into the schools is considered very important and will provide students and teachers the ability to start the culture change in a big way. The OPS compiled packaged kits for teachers that include books, posters, thumb bands and teaching points. The kits can be or- dered through the police webpage and sent to teachers to incorporate into their class curriculum.
The Ottawa police have been partnering on this campaign with Safer Roads Ottawa and many other agencies and corporations since the fall of 2014. The four local school boards in Ottawa and Gatineau are all champions in the education component. In terms of the enforcement component, other local police have been assisting in joint forces blitzes, which are still ongoing.
“Distracted driving is one of the biggest rising concerns for police in terms of public safety on our roads,” Hull said.
“It’s responsible for more deaths and injuries in collisions than any other cause, even surpassing impaired driving.”
While currently focusing on the Ottawa Catholic School Board due to demand, the school kit will be implemented through a phased approach over the next year to the other three school boards: OttawaCarleton District School Board, Conseil des écoles catholiques du centre-Est de l’Ontario and Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario.
“We’ve also received requests from outside the region for our distracted driving education materials, and we are in the process of sharing everything so other police services can hop on the bandwagon as well,” Hull said. “We want this message to spread across the country, and right now Ottawa’s school kids can help us in this important cause for safer roads in our communities.”
We want this message to spread across the country, and right now Ottawa’s school kids can help us in this important cause for safer roads in our communities.
— Ottawa police Sgt. Denis Hull