STEERING TEENS AWAY FROM CRIME

Safety Essay Earns Local Student Cash

Sabrina Denoudin wants to keep her fellow teens from committing crime.

She believes there is a solution, and has promptly been awarded for
her efforts. The 14-year-old Barrie Central Collegiate student wrote
a paper on how society can steer students away from breaking the law,
as part of a community safety essay contest sponsored by Sinton
Transportation and Barrie MP Patrick Brown.

Denoudin was given a $500 scholarship check from Sinton, which will
be used to pay expenses for attending Trinity Western University in
British Columbia.

"Mostly, I wrote this essay because I realized that a lot of people
benefit from the knowledge of what elementary and high school
students have to go through, what we do in our spare time and why we
do it," she said, standing in the main foyer at the Barrie Police
headquarters Friday afternoon. "A lot of kids go into drugs. When
they go into drugs, it's either because they can access them at home
(or at school). There's so many kids out there who can easily access
drugs. We need to make (drugs) less accessible."

The essay was written over three days during the winter break. Dozens
of Barrie students entered the contest, which was judged by a panel
of community leaders from the Barrie Police, fire and emergency
services and government.

Brown says the contest has helped students become involved in
community safety issues.

"It's a great way to get young Canadians interested in promoting
public safety," he said, noting the contest was influenced by a
similar one held in the Ottawa area.

"Sometimes you have people complain the laws are too difficult, or
that police aren't your friend. (Denoudin's) response was to work in
partnership with the police. She said the Youth Criminal Justice Act
wasn't strong enough, she talked about deterrents, she used stats to
back up her point."

Police chief Wayne Frechette says the effort shown by contest
entrants was encouraging.

"So many times kids are talked about in terms of being the problem,
here they are being the solution," he said. "It's really encouraging.
It gives young (students) like (Denoudin) the opportunity to show
(their) stuff."