Area parents are going to get a chance to learn from the best when it comes to protecting their children’s online activities.
Louise Schenk, co-chairman of the Minto-Clifford Public School parent council, was at town council on June 2 to announce good News and offer an invitation to an Internet safety presentation on June 16.
Schenk said Rob Nickel, The Cyber Safety Expert (cyber-safety.com) will be speaking at the school at 7pm.
Nickel is a former 14-year veteran of the OPP and an expert in the field of undercover investigations as they relate to the internet. The presentation will help parents understand the dangers lurking online and give them simple tools to help protect their children in a wired world.
“This is a good News story and we’re really thrilled,” Schenk said. “We applied for a Parent Reaching Out grant. We’d received these before and used the funds for career fairs. There’s usually $1,000 available for a school, but there are millions of applications made. We’d been very fortunate to get them in the past.”
This year, because Minto-Clifford had held career fairs in the past, the person helping to draft the application suggested chances for another grant might be lower.
So, the idea came up at the school council “that parents are supposed to be watching their children’s use of the internet and monitoring them. But we may not even know what we’re looking for or looking at when they are on Facebook, MSN.”
While schools often have people speak to students about cyber safety, “We felt it might be interesting to have a cyber safety person come in to speak to parents.”
The grant is for parents, she said. She said Nickel “is considered to be a world renowned expert on cyber safety.” He has appeared on television programs such as Oprah, Dr. Phil, and Canada AM.” His expertise comes with a cost, Schenk said.
The parent council was notified in March the application was approved, “But, it was for a fraction of the amount of money that was needed to bring in the presentation to our school.” At that point, the parent council considered when it would hold the event and how to come up with the funds.
Unfortunately, Schenk said, the time available co-incided with the next meeting of Minto council. “We’re kind of hoping you’ll ditch that and come to our presentation,” she joked.
“He’s been on Oprah … We have to be there,” said councillor Rick Hembly.
Schenk noted Nickel will also be speaking to the grade 5 to grade 8 students at 2pm on the same day.
“If you’re interested in coming, please do join us for that presentation,” she said. “We had to scramble to get multiple dollars to make up the rest of the amount. And the community has been unbelievable in its support of this. I absolutely had no hope that we’d ever be able to do this … and at such a last minute.”
She said the primary sponsors are Germania Mutual and Leslie Motors. In addition, she cited many other business and community groups She said parent council members seeking funds had no problems, and “that is so nice.”
The result is “We’re bringing this unique opportunity to the parents free of charge.”
In addition, advertising was sent out to other area schools including Palmerston, Drayton, Maryborough, Normanby, and Victoria Cross (Mount Forest) as well as the local high school.
As well, the OPP?were informed, since he is a former police officer, Schenk said.
“It’s a true story of partnership between the school and the community,” she said.
Councillor Barb Burrows noted that she had heard Nickel’s presentation a few years ago at Norwell District Secondary School.
“It was an excellent presentation and an eye-opener how quickly people can find information on the internet.”
Councillor Tammy Reiner said that in listening to the grade 5 students “even the terminology they use about finding each other on the computer is so beyond most adults, so I really hope that you get a good turnout.”
