Senior Constable Jason Roughley dropped by Casuarina School in Riverstone on Thursday, not to berate — but to chat with pupils about how to stay safe online.
Animated pupils in years 5 to 8 had many questions for The Hills schools liaison officer who, as it turns out, is also a Rivo school boy.
‘‘I went to St Johns [Primary School in Riverstone], then Patrician Brothers Blacktown and Riverstone High,’’ said Senior Constable Roughley, who belongs to the Youth Command, working out of Castle Hill police station.
Many of the kids’ questions on Thursday related to showing his gun, to which he responded no repeatedly.
Others were about Facebook and sexting.
He said the message he wanted the kids to take away is that they should be very careful to not put too much information on Facebook.
‘‘The safe amount of ‘friends’ is a few ... only people you know,’’ Senior Constable Roughley said.
‘‘Too many young people are too open to accepting ‘friends’, and some are making the mistake of sending naked pictures.
‘‘We want them to know it’s dangerous, and it’s also a crime.’’
Classroom teacher Katie Harrison said like in any school, cyber-bullying was sometimes a problem.
‘‘Friends one day, enemies the next ... just not thinking about the impacts of their comments,’’ she said.
It was important to make students think about their words before posting them, Ms Harrison said.
Casuarina School is a specialist school that provides intensive educational and behavioural support for students who have exhausted all other school-based and behaviour support provisions, including students with autism, as well as behavioural and emotional disorders.
‘‘A lot of the kids have processing delays, so they’ll come back days later with questions,’’ Ms Harrison said.
Senior Constable Roughley said students did well to sit through a 40-minute presentation.
He said the School Liaison Police Program has been running across 35 local area commands throughout NSW since 2007.
Most of the high schools in The Hills are on board with the program, which sees him do as many as five presentations a week to up to 250 students in each year group.
He will go back to Casuarina School in August, to talk to students in years 8 to 12 about drugs and alcohol.
