Safe Schools Initiative for Grades 6, 7 and 8 

Rage or Reason – Making the Right Choice

Jason Edmonds, 23, and two 21-year-old friends died as passengers in a car crash caused by careless driving and what police described as an incident of "road rage"; which may be also designated, “emotional impairment”. These young men, with a better understanding of how to diffuse the situation could have prevented the incident from escalating to a tragedy. We believe strongly that education for young soon-to-be drivers who are now passengers with older friends and family need to learn their rights and responsibilities in order to protect themselves from such horrible consequences.

To follow up the highly successful presentation, “Road Rage: a Family’s Perspective”, primarily designed for adult and high school age audiences, we have developed a new program specifically targeting students from grades 6 through 8 entitled, “Rage or Reason - Making the Right Choice”. This program will address issues of anger management and passenger responsibility toward irresponsible drivers to an age group often overlooked in injury prevention programs and safety sessions. As a form of conflict resolution the methods described in this talk should have a “spill-over” effect in other areas of a student’s life, such as in-school and after-school disputes, bullying scenarios and many other interpersonal relationship difficulties.

Presenting this program will be Joe Edmonds who has delivered over the past 6 years the program, “Road Rage: a Family’s Perspective” to tens of thousands of people of all ages throughout Ontario and as far afield as Maine and Ohio, USA, and at the 2002 World Health Organization’s International Conference.  Joe's years of experience as an educator and professional musical entertainer, plus a natural gift for reaching young people, serve to provide a most effective and meaningful educational experience.