Great Bend Police Officers’ Brian Dougherty and Jefferson Davis will present a “True Lies” program for parents or anyone who cares about the youth of today at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Great Bend High School auditorium. They will talk about the issues 7th-12th graders are dealing with.
“The one hour presentation is fast paced,” said Davis, Great Bend liaison officer. “We provide information pertinent to what we’re seeing. We’ll talk about the violent media and the effects on youth. We want to stop problems before they start. We can work together to find a solution.”
Some of the issues that the teens are dealing with include sexting, cyberbullying, bullying and school violence. “What we can do as parents is to be proactive about these things,” said Davis.
The two officers recently attended a seminar with Phil Chalmers, an expert in school violence prevention. They will be sharing the information they learned at the seminar as well as information from what they see in the community.
During the adult presentation, the officers will show examples of the violence youth see today in games and movies as well as some case studies.
The two will also show examples of the changes in the behavior of the 15-year-old boy who killed one student and wounded 23 others in 1998 in Springfield, Ore. His doodles on notes and homework  had become violent in the six months prior to the shooting and he began acting out behaviorally.
The officers will show scanned examples of that and how these violent teens get to the point of the shootings. They will give tips of the warning signs.
Officer Davis spoke of an app on a smart phone that will tell the person they are talking to their exact location. They will show parents how technology can be used to victimize.
“Basically, we’ll expose the cultural lies fed to our youth that violence doesn’t affect them,” said Davis. They will have tips and offer hand outs to the parents on resources available.
“We need to recognize what we need to do to intervene,” said Davis.
Officer Dougherty said, “Movie ratings have no effect. How easy to get violent movies at Redbox—there’s no one monitoring Redbox or online.”
The officers are willing to speak elsewhere and to do what they can to help. They will have feedback and offer evaluations of the presentations.