For immediate release
October 12, 1999

CAVEAT DAY RETURNS

Secondary students from across Hastings and Prince Edward will come together October 21 to learn about making their schools and communities safer, more peaceful places to be. The Child and Youth Counsellor team fo the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board is holding their third CAVEAT Day at Belleville's Quinte Alliance Church. Building on past successes, CAVEAT Day will introduce area high school students to anti-violence initiatives they can take back to their schools.

CAVEAT (Canadians Against Violence Everywhere Advocating its Termination) is a non-profit charitable organization, founded in 1992 by Priscilla de Villiers, of Burlington, Ontario, after the murder of her daughter, Nina. CAVEAT puts an emphasis on education as a tool to break the cycle of violence.

CAVEAT Day was introduced to Hastings and Prince Edward schools by Counsellors, Wendy Sutherland and Janice Walker, in 1996 as a response to the deaths of three Belleville teens: Mark Fyke, Shawn Keegan and Rebecca Middleton. Thanks to CAVEAT Day, many anti-violence initiatives have been introduced to local high schools.

Each of the eight secondary schools in the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board will form a school-based CAVEAT Committee of up to ten students and a staff advisor. This committee, together with committees in the Catholic system who have also been invited to take part, attend the CAVEAT Day seminar and then bring back to their school the skills and ideas learned throughout the day.

CAVEAT Day 1999 keynote speaker, Dr. Wendy Craig will address Bully Proofing Your School. Workshops include: Random Acts of Kindness Week, Violence in Sport, Arrive Alive, Gang Violence, Students & Community Policing, Dating Relationships - Setting Sexual Limits, Bully Proofing Your School, and Dating can be Hazardous to Your Health.
 

For more information contact:
Lisa Shunock, Child & Youth Counsellor,  966-1170  ext. 2451