Seymour College students took part in a talk on the dangers of coward punches at a special presentation run by the Pat Cronin Foundation.
The foundation was established following the death of 19-year-old Pat Cronin from a coward punch attack while on a night out in 2016 and aims to help young people avoid violence by making wise decisions.
For former police officer Peter Eames, who presented to the students on Monday, May 30, the opportunity to join the foundation and change awareness and perceptions of violence was irresistible.
Mr Eames spent 33 years in the police force and was motivated to speak up by violence that he witnessed on multiple levels.
“Once I got to know the Pat Cronin Foundation and its values and what it’s all about, I thought ‘I have to be part of this’,” Mr Eames reflected.
In 1999, Mr Eames was also the victim of violence when he was shot in the chest and leg during a siege at Kangaroo Flat in Bendigo.
With a strong desire to draw upon his time as a police officer, Mr Eames believes he can “better connect” with young people by drawing upon his first-hand experiences of violence.
A key focus of the talk was to look at the role of coward punches, which are also known as ‘king hits’. These are punches where the victim is hit unaware and their head hits the ground.
“It has a devastating effect because when you attend the initial incident, it's normally a nightclub or outside the hotel, and there's a lot of young people milling around,” Mr Eames said.
“And there's a person regrettably who's unconscious on the ground.
“When I go to those incidents, I often wondered to myself, ‘how do we get to that particular stage?’
“I've felt the pain of those people that have been involved ... as parents and siblings and so forth ... the devastation of losing a child, that’s the most incredibly devastating trauma a parent can suffer in their lifetime.”
Even when a victim survives an attack, the impact is often lifelong when brain injuries are acquired.
“That also puts an incredible amount of pressure on parents and other close family members too, because that person requires quite constant care and attention,” Mr Eames said.
With students split into age groups for two separate presentations, Mr Eames said the talks resonated more strongly for older students at Seymour College as they were more likely to encounter heated or alcohol-driven experiences.
“The older students took a more serious view of it, because it closely aligns with their age group and they’re at that stage where they're driving motor cars or they are consuming alcohol,” he said.
Irrespective of age, Mr Eames wants students to leave his talks with a zero-tolerance attitude to violence and to practice the three key principles of the Pat Cronin Foundation: be wise, think carefully and act kindly.