When a stranger offered to sell cannabis to a couple of Whangarei 12-year-olds, they did the right thing
Back in the day, cannabis was easily available "through a friend of a friend".
Nowadays, strangers offer it to you.
And when a stranger offered to sell cannabis to a couple of Whangarei 12-year-olds, they did the right thing.
They did what the giraffe had told them and said "no" not only to the would-be drug seller, but to cannabis in general.
By telling an adult, and by the right people being told, the right thing happened. Police caught the cannabis dealer.
Giraffe, by the way, is not a typo. Our 12-year-olds had been listening to drug educator Harold the Giraffe who works with the Life Education Trust (LET).
They tell kids how to look after their brains, their bodies and the bad stuff that can happen around drugs and alcohol.
We need LET because there are kids out there who don't get this message at home.
And perhaps, instead, are told it's OK to sell drugs, rather than say "no" to them. That's life.
To me, the 12-year-olds who acted this week are heroes, because they stood up to anti-social behaviour that some adults would turn a blind eye to.
If we all stood up to anti-social behaviour - drugs, bullying, violence - there would be far less of it.
These kids have set an example not just for children, but for adults.
And they put their faith in adults doing the right thing.
Not just in the short term.
Long term, adults around kids need to make sure kids know what is right, what is wrong, and that we will protect them, and do the right thing by them if they come to us, like these kids did.
These 12-year-olds have set the bar in terms of tolerance to drugs and anti-social behaviour, how about the rest of us follow their example, and support each other to say a big, loud NO to anti-social behaviour in our region.
The worker logged 437 hours in five weeks - all of which was unpaid.