Police educate Kirkby students on alcohol misuse

Carl Holland, Ashfield’s neighbourhood sergeant and PCSO Sarah Keightley met with students at West Nottinghamshire College’s construction campus in Kirkby to give students ‘vital information ‘on anti-social behaviour and the law.

They met with the plumbing and joinery students on Low Moor Road top kick-start Nottinghamshire’s police’s awareness-raising campaign.

Shannon Vincent, 20, who is studying joinery Level 3 at the college said after the meeting: “The session really reminded me of a person close to me who died as a result of alcohol misuse.

“They fell and hit their head and died due to impaired judgement.

“I’ve seen the effects of alcohol dependency and how it can cause so many problems, and having lost someone as a result of this, it’s made me become a person who doesn’t drink.”

Sergeant Holland began the session highlighting alcohol use and misuse and the effects that alcohol can have on general behaviour.

He emphasised how the loss of inhibition and impaired judgement, as well as slower reactions, can often cause individuals under the influence to get into trouble, at the meeting held on Tuesday , May 15.

The college teaches 26,000 full and part-time students across its campus in Ashfield and Mansfield.

Both Sergeant Holland and PCSO Keightley spoke to students about drug-related crimes, as well as the issues around cyber-crime and the sending of offensive images via mobile phones and how phones can be seized and used in solving crime cases.

Sergeant Holland said: “I am looking forward to speaking more at these sessions.

“I want to raise the general awareness that just one stupid moment, whether drunk, high or just angered – can kill someone. One single punch to an individual can kill.

“If I can get into just one person’s mind through these awareness-raising sessions to make them think “I won’t have that one last drink, or I am going to walk away from this situation” then I will be happy to have influenced their decision.”