Smack Talk

On the 11th of November we had Wayne from Smack Talk came and spoke to the year 10s about suicide prevention and online safety. Smacktalk is a non- profit organisation that was started by Wayne Holdsworth after his son Mac Holdsworth sadly took his own life on the 24th of October 2023. 

Wayne speaks out about his sons struggles around being sexually extorted, how that took a toll on his mental health and overall life. During this session with the Year 10s Wayne gave students advice on how to deal with social media safely and appropriately. He also expressed how difficult his experience was and was able to connect to student on a deeper level.  We spoke to a few Year 10s about their experience with Smack Talk and this is just some of the comments they had about Smack Talk:

“ opened up people’s eyes”,

“ was very moving”

 “powerful”

 “was one of the best presentations I have heard”

 “because we don’t hear a lot of personal stories we overlook it, but because we heard a personal story it was more realistic and opened our eyes”

 We are looking forward to Wayne coming back to Heathmont on the 25th of November to speak to our year 11s during our step up in a couple weeks. A massive thankyou to all staff who helped get this incursion up and running. 

If you would like to have a look at Wayne’s story here is a link to the website: https://smacktalk.com.au/  

Thank you  

Alivia Dennis & Ashlan White (Year 11)