By Rachel Hall

There was a mixed reaction in the room at the Boys and Girls Club of Sugar House when Detective Tyler Lowe asked the group of youngsters if taking something they found and they knew didn’t belong to them was stealing.

“If you guys are playing at the park and you find something that you really like laying on the grass and you decide to take it home, and you didn’t see anybody leave it and didn’t see anybody drop it, because you just got to the park, is that stealing?” Lowe asked.

The yes’s and no’s with further explanations showed that not every child in the room knew that finding and keeping was the same thing as stealing. The role-playing scenario presented by Detectives Tyler Lowe, Andy Cluff and Josh Smith provided a visual example for the children to contemplate about when a person is actually stealing an item.

“When you find something that’s not yours, you can leave it where it is. You can give it to the police station and a police officer can try to find whose it is,” Lowe said.

After discussing why it would not be a wise choice to take something that belonged to someone else, Lowe used a volunteer from the audience to teach the boys and girls how bullying can be hurtful and how a bullying situation can be handled with the help of friends.

Every child in the audience received a piece of paper and crumpled it up like a snowball, then threw it in the direction of one child. The young boy, who volunteered as being brave and strong, indicated he felt bad when he saw the paper snowballs flying in his direction.

Lowe then armed the boy, Charlie, with protective gear like officers wear to stay safe and allowed the audience to rethrow the paper snowballs. Charlie felt good after the second round of paper snowballs headed in his direction, since he couldn’t feel anything with all of the gear on. However, wearing police protective gear to school isn’t an option for students.

The group then stood in front of Charlie as a handful of remaining audience members tossed the paper snowballs in his direction. With the help of friends, the impact of being bullied was minimal because the balls couldn’t get to him. Lowe explained the best thing the boys and girls can do is stand up for a friend that may be being bullied.

“What kept Charlie safe this time? Everyone[did]. So if you don’t have a suit to wear to go to school, how are you going to be safe from bullies? You can get your friends. There is safety with numbers,” Lowe said.