Fighting back: Echuca College principal Jessica Sargeant and Dorinda Watson, a member of the Echuca College Student Services Team, acknowledge the importance of the Pat Cronin Foundation’s presentations.
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Echuca College
Echuca students are set to learn about the devastation a Coward Punch can have, when the Pat Cronin Foundation delivers powerful violence-prevention education to around 1800 teenagers in the region this week.
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The prominent Melbourne-based charity was established by the grieving parents of nineteen-year-old Pat Cronin, who died after a Coward Punch attack while on a night out in 2016.
Its face-to-face “Violence is Never OK” and “Rethinking Anger” presentations reach more than 70,000 young people each year, aiming to change attitudes to violence as well as providing the tools to manage anger and handle conflict.
The Foundation will deliver 14 presentations in 10 schools in Echuca, Rochester, Cobram, Yarrawonga and Shepparton over five days.
Tragically lost: Pat Cronin was killed by a Coward's Punch in 2016.
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The Pat Cronin Foundation
“We’re looking forward to visiting Echuca as part of a big push into schools throughout regional Victoria this month,” Foundation director Matt Cronin, the father of Pat, said.
“Thousands of people are hospitalised each year in Australia due to assault, often resulting in tragic lifelong consequences for the victims, as well as the perpetrators and families – and that has to stop.”
“We’re passionate about what we do. We don’t want any family to go through what we went through – it has been nothing short of horrific.”
Mr Cronin said Pat’s death was “totally senseless” and something the family, including mum Robyn and siblings Emma and Lucas were forced to live with every day.
Giving a warning: Matt Cronin, father and founder of the Pat Cronin Foundation says “we don’t want any family to go through what we went through”.
Photo by
The Pat Cronin Foundation
“Any school is crazy if it is offered this presentation and doesn’t take it up,” said Dorinda Watson, a member of the Echuca College Student Services Team.
“I was lucky enough to see a presentation two years ago, and it had the students sitting there aghast at the realisation that a split second of senseless violence could follow them for the rest of their lives,” she said.
“They learn that violence is not acceptable, and we hope they take this information back into their communities and their clubs to start further conversations.”
“Students remember a visit from the Pat Cronin Foundation – it sticks in their memories and it’s so important,” Ms Watson said.
With the 2024 school year barely under way, the Foundation has already booked in 260 presentations throughout Australia.
Aligned to the Australian School Curriculum as part of a comprehensive Prep-Year 12 Be Wise Program, the presentations provide an understanding of Pat’s story, raise awareness of the impact of violence and offer practical tips and strategies.
