1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:05,560
Speaker 1: I'm here with Melissa McGinnis, whose son Jordan tragically died

2
00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:09,520
Speaker 1: and caused the deaths of four people in a crash

3
00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:13,160
Speaker 1: some years ago. This is going to be an interesting chat,

4
00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:16,599
Speaker 1: I suspect, Melissa, good morning, welcome, thank you. What message

5
00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:18,480
Speaker 1: do you give the kids inside.

6
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,480
Speaker 2: Mine is really clear. I guess when you walk in

7
00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,799
Speaker 2: these shoes when your son has done something like my

8
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:26,840
Speaker 2: son didn't. To give you a little bit of context,

9
00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:29,680
Speaker 2: nearly twelve years ago, Jordan was returning from a work

10
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:32,160
Speaker 2: Christmas party. It was his first ever work Christmas party,

11
00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,720
Speaker 2: and he made a series of disgraceful choices and he

12
00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:39,120
Speaker 2: drove under the influence of alcohol. He had cannabis in

13
00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,080
Speaker 2: his system and he was speeding in excessive of thirty

14
00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:44,640
Speaker 2: kilometers of the speed limit when he hit a broken

15
00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:48,000
Speaker 2: down stationary car that was parked on the side of

16
00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:49,559
Speaker 2: the end. One broken down on the side of the end,

17
00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:54,480
Speaker 2: one up in Queensland, and as a result of that collision,

18
00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:59,280
Speaker 2: that car went careening up the guard rail. It exploded

19
00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:03,000
Speaker 2: into flames and those occupants were killed as a results,

20
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:08,880
Speaker 2: as was Jordan. There was one survivor. Now, Jordan made

21
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,160
Speaker 2: a series of disgraceful choices. I have no idea why

22
00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,440
Speaker 2: he chose to drive that night. So coming back to

23
00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:17,760
Speaker 2: that question that you asked me, what is my message

24
00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:22,200
Speaker 2: for these teens today? Jordan would never have intended to

25
00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:24,959
Speaker 2: cause the harm that he caused to his own family,

26
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,080
Speaker 2: and in particular the harm that he caused to the

27
00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:31,399
Speaker 2: families and his victims. And I'd like to preface that

28
00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,080
Speaker 2: with I don't want to seek any sympathy for what

29
00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:39,720
Speaker 2: I do around this country. That sympathy remains solely with

30
00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:44,080
Speaker 2: Jordan's victims and Jordan's victims families. But Jordan's intentions that

31
00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:50,360
Speaker 2: night were completely irrelevant because his choices harmed other people.

32
00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:53,440
Speaker 2: In fact, the only thing that mattered that night were

33
00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:57,960
Speaker 2: his choices. So I'd like to really drill into aligning

34
00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,160
Speaker 2: your intentions and your actions and your choices. So these

35
00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:05,200
Speaker 2: teens that would be sitting in high street high streets,

36
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:10,519
Speaker 2: sorry street smart high today, often they are vacillating between

37
00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,720
Speaker 2: feelings of being passive inside their social ecosystems or being impulsive.

38
00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,480
Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is thatsive. So impulsivity

39
00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:22,200
Speaker 2: is when you don't think about your intentions whatsoever, you

40
00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:25,560
Speaker 2: just move straight into action. Passivity is when you think

41
00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:29,320
Speaker 2: about your intentions, but you choose not to act on them.

42
00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:33,000
Speaker 2: So they're the two of the leading causes of row trauma.

43
00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:36,160
Speaker 2: In fact, all of those choices that result in regret,

44
00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:40,959
Speaker 2: harm and trauma. So how do you disrupt that? So today,

45
00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:44,080
Speaker 2: this education, this gift that they're going to be receiving.

46
00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:47,640
Speaker 2: I hope that when they walk out the doors that

47
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:50,720
Speaker 2: they understand that this sort of stuff just doesn't happen

48
00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:54,480
Speaker 2: to other families. The likelihood of happening to somebody's family

49
00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:58,760
Speaker 2: here is it's high. And you don't really think about

50
00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,480
Speaker 2: this sort of thing and what it can do to

51
00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,799
Speaker 2: a life until your family is touched by it. That

52
00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,440
Speaker 2: it means a whole lot more So for me, I

53
00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:10,880
Speaker 2: would do anything that I can. I will talk to

54
00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:15,560
Speaker 2: any teens, I will do whatever wherever, just to prevent

55
00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,720
Speaker 2: one more family going through what Jordan's victim's families went through.

56
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,000
Speaker 1: You're between a rock and a hard place, aren't you.

57
00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:25,960
Speaker 1: I mean the love for your son obviously against as

58
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,840
Speaker 1: you say, the terrible choices he made. That's right, and

59
00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:31,160
Speaker 1: you've got the sentence.

60
00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:34,520
Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. I often say Jordan did the crime.

61
00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:38,680
Speaker 2: I will forever do the time, and I mean forever,

62
00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:42,480
Speaker 2: and there's a little bit of a legacy that he

63
00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:44,280
Speaker 2: left with me. And this is when I get an

64
00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:46,960
Speaker 2: opportunity to talk to teens around the country. I talk

65
00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:51,600
Speaker 2: very much about even that morning that those police arrived

66
00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,680
Speaker 2: on my doorstep, you know that the door knock to

67
00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:59,520
Speaker 2: tell me that Jordan had died. Now I didn't know

68
00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:01,920
Speaker 2: it that I knew that he'd been drinking because we'd

69
00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:04,360
Speaker 2: exchanged some texts the night before. I didn't know that

70
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:08,080
Speaker 2: he had smoked cannabis, and nor did I know that

71
00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:12,920
Speaker 2: he was speeding. But I knew that because he had

72
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,760
Speaker 2: hit that car and that there were five deaths, that

73
00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:20,640
Speaker 2: he would be responsible. So I very much felt a

74
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:26,320
Speaker 2: civic responsibility on my shoulders that morning, all the time

75
00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:31,080
Speaker 2: thinking I've lost a son, and how do you agree

76
00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:34,919
Speaker 2: with a child who did that? And Jordan was, you know,

77
00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:36,520
Speaker 2: buy and large. He was a good kid. He was

78
00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,400
Speaker 2: your typical teenage dirtbag. That was my little joke with

79
00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,640
Speaker 2: a master of calling the teenage dirt bag. And I

80
00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:45,919
Speaker 2: would never thought he could do anything like this, but

81
00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:46,440
Speaker 2: he did.

82
00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:49,280
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. No one would would they I'm

83
00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:52,480
Speaker 1: about their child. You try and get that message across

84
00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,120
Speaker 1: to them. You can't drink and drive for goodness sake,

85
00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:56,600
Speaker 1: you know, that's number one.

86
00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,160
Speaker 2: Absolutely So. One of the things that I've learned as

87
00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,839
Speaker 2: we travel around the country running you choose programs, is

88
00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:07,120
Speaker 2: that you can't teach attitudes and behaviors to teens. This

89
00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:11,320
Speaker 2: is something that they have to feel. It needs to

90
00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:14,400
Speaker 2: be revealed to them. When you can reveal, or when

91
00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:16,960
Speaker 2: you reveal to yourself about your behaviors and what's going

92
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,680
Speaker 2: on in your social ecosystem, then you've got a chance

93
00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:22,440
Speaker 2: of changing it. And how do you make this teen

94
00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:27,040
Speaker 2: generation be really accountable for those choices that they make.

95
00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:33,320
Speaker 2: It's one of our messages around passivity and impulsivity. How

96
00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:36,400
Speaker 2: do you disrupt that? You disrupt it by the love

97
00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:40,880
Speaker 2: that you have for your family. I know Jordan would

98
00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:44,279
Speaker 2: do anything if he could to undo what course did,

99
00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:46,720
Speaker 2: to not have his family go through the misery, his

100
00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:49,440
Speaker 2: beautiful little sisters that he loves so much, even all

101
00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:52,800
Speaker 2: of his mates the wider community. And don't even worry

102
00:05:52,839 --> 00:05:55,760
Speaker 2: about my family through this whole process. More important is

103
00:05:55,800 --> 00:06:00,400
Speaker 2: what he did to Jordan's sorry, to his victims families,

104
00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:02,840
Speaker 2: And I still think about those families and those victims

105
00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:04,839
Speaker 2: every single day. And I have to live with the

106
00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,240
Speaker 2: fact that my son did this. Yes, so I'm going

107
00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:10,800
Speaker 2: to talk right to the fact of everything he did.

108
00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,680
Speaker 2: He was one hundred percent to blame for the horrus

109
00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:17,480
Speaker 2: that unfolded. And I'm going to talk about how much

110
00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:20,760
Speaker 2: I loved him, but I'm going to talk to exactly

111
00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:22,480
Speaker 2: what it is that he did.

112
00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:25,520
Speaker 1: And that's the important messages, and that to get people

113
00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:29,200
Speaker 1: inside there, the kids inside there, to recognize that even

114
00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:33,440
Speaker 1: if they're gone in such a tragic event, the family lives.

115
00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:36,520
Speaker 1: That's right with this the legacy. This is a terrible legacy,

116
00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:37,640
Speaker 1: and you've been carrying it.

117
00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,279
Speaker 2: And I think too, when all of the tattoos have

118
00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:45,119
Speaker 2: been tattooed and the social media posts in the first person,

119
00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,320
Speaker 2: you know, love your bro, life will never be the same.

120
00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:51,279
Speaker 2: Fly high, brother, I'll do everything, live my life. When

121
00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:55,200
Speaker 2: the tattoos are tattooed, the social media posts or finish,

122
00:06:55,720 --> 00:07:00,640
Speaker 2: all that's left is mum, dad, brother and sister, whatever

123
00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:03,520
Speaker 2: and ever and ever. And I like to take that

124
00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:06,120
Speaker 2: teens on that journey of have Look, if you want

125
00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,040
Speaker 2: to know what life might look like for your family,

126
00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:14,440
Speaker 2: come on a little journey. So I seek to show

127
00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,040
Speaker 2: them my family, but what I'm actually doing is I'm

128
00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:21,640
Speaker 2: revealing to them about their family. So to you know

129
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:26,640
Speaker 2: today is such an important part of that program. We

130
00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:31,080
Speaker 2: absolutely need top down education awareness programs like is what

131
00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:32,720
Speaker 2: is happening today? And I love that there are going

132
00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:35,800
Speaker 2: to be twelve thousand teens from the Adelaide area who

133
00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:38,840
Speaker 2: are all reading off the same hymn sheet. But the

134
00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:40,680
Speaker 2: next stage of that is what does action look like?

135
00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:43,600
Speaker 2: So what you choose seeks to do is to reinforce

136
00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:46,640
Speaker 2: what they see today, but then move from the ground

137
00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:50,400
Speaker 2: up grassroots movement and meet in the middle with governmental

138
00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:52,920
Speaker 2: policy and with the likes of RAA and go Rightio.

139
00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:58,520
Speaker 2: How do we turn today into action inside those social

140
00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:01,160
Speaker 2: groups and even leadershi it can happen between just two

141
00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:03,000
Speaker 2: people in those critical moments that matter.

142
00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:07,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Melissa, marvelous to meet you today. Gosh, the

143
00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:11,920
Speaker 1: suffering I can't imagine, and such an important message that

144
00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:15,000
Speaker 1: you've got to share with these kids. So well done

145
00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:18,440
Speaker 1: to you and out of absolute tragedy, Thank you very much.

146
00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:23,720
Speaker 1: Melissa McGinnis rather, whose son Jordan tragically died caused the

147
00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:26,480
Speaker 1: death of four people in a crash in Queensland twelve

148
00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:30,520
Speaker 1: years ago. Just a horrific story. We wouldn't want anyone

149
00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:34,880
Speaker 1: to go through that, either victim as the families who

150
00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:39,400
Speaker 1: have been affected, or the one family, the McGinnis family themselves,

151
00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:44,960
Speaker 1: just absolutely horrific. Here at the Entertainment Center this morning.

152
00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:47,960
Speaker 1: Lie from the RAA Street Smart High program