Students' perspective presented
EHS teens know about 'charitable thinking'
By Bobbi Mlynar
Thursday, January 10, 2008
About 30 members of the Emporia High School Student Council gave school board members some things to think about Wednesday at dinner meeting prior to the board’s regularly scheduled meetings.
The dinner meeting is held annually so board members can hear students’ ideas on a variety of topics, and exchange information from both points of view.
School board members heard updates on StuCo community-service activities, suggestions on ways to improve freshman orientation, a recommendation for an upperclassmen mentoring program, and students’ opinions of the alcohol and drug use policies.
F StuCo President Amanda Roberts and Michaela Reynolds talked about their experiences at the National Association of Student Councils conference. The event included a Special Olympics Day, when StuCo members and Special Olympics athletes worked together.
“We had the opportunity to actually be paired with Special Olympians and help them, and it was kind of cool,” Amanda said. “… It was really kind of a life-changing experience.”
“The whole point of the day was just bridging the gap with students in high school and students with special needs,” Michaela added.
Both young women have become lunch buddies with special-needs students at EHS.
“We want to involve them more in other activities,” Amanda said.
F Samantha Kraft and Amanda reported on progress with StuCo’s annual blood drive, which has been so successful in recent years that Red Cross workers have been overwhelmed with donors.
StuCo is planning to help in donor screening and perhaps in answering initial questions to help move the blood donations along faster.
“Sometimes we get 30, 40, 50, maybe even 60 in line,” said teacher and advisor Katie Bacon. “It’s amazing because word spreads. We have appointments, but we also have walk-ins.”
This year, members made Super Hero posters to promote the Bloodmobile visit and encourage students to donate. Teenagers aged 17 and over can give blood; 16-year-olds can give blood with permission of parents or guardians. After the blood drive, donors signed an over-sized poster that now hangs on a wall near the school’s front entrance.
Although the EHS students keep Red Cross volunteers busy, Bacon said, “They said this is their favorite school to attend.”
F Michaela Reynolds announced that Project Emporia will begin next month.
“We’ve had a lot of success with it in the past,” she said.
Students collect cans of food that later are donated to the Salvation Army, SOS, and the Emporia Rescue mission.
Michaela said she had met Wednesday morning with principals to ask that they, too, hold a canned food drive, and a similar request has been made at Newman Regional Health.
ESB Financial and local grocery stores will serve as drop-off points, and students will sometimes be at the stores to encourage shoppers to donate. ESB will match donations at the bank, up to 500 cans.
“Also, the Jane Reeble Foundation donates $1,500, which is a huge contribution, and we also ask businesses around the community to donate,” Michaela said.
A door-to-door scavenger hunt also will be held in conjunction with Project Emporia.
F The new fitness center that opened in August is being used extensively. At least two classes use the center every hour, and it is open after school to students and teachers.
Bacon said that the center already has made a measurable difference in blood pressure, heart rate, and body-fat percentages of the students, and has drawn the attention of a number of school districts. She is assembling information about the center’s use and the results it has produced.
“A lot of people are looking to model their program after ours,” she said.
Each sophomore is in the fitness center for a full semester, instead of only three or six weeks.
“In six weeks’ time, you’re just beginning to see a change,” Bacon said. “We wanted people to know what it feels like to achieve their fitness level.”
Amanda said that students do feel the difference that exercise makes and may be inclined to enroll in Lifetime Fitness as seniors to maintain that feeling.
Responding to a question about whether additional television sets had been installed in the center, StuCo member Anna Watkins said that little attention is paid to the two TV sets already there. Students talk, help each, and listen to music as they exercise, she said.
The center also has made a difference to staff members who may not use it for exercise.
“Before it was there, people would run down the hallways,” said Principal Scott Sheldon. Teachers would move out of the way and sometimes dive back against the wall as the youngsters ran past.
“Everybody that used to run down the halls are now in the fitness centers and the halls are safe,” Sheldon said. “… Teachers have mentioned that.”
F Students said that the two-hour freshman orientation is not enough to familiarize freshmen with EHS and to let them know of the sports, activities and clubs open for their participation.
Teacher Katie Bacon said that before class block times were changed, organizations had set up booths for students to visit and to learn more about the groups’ activities.
“Club attendance is down,” Bacon said. “We’re not getting information out.”
Lower participation in extracurricular activities leaves students with less satisfaction or interest in schools, and can increase dropout rates and other problems.
Bacon also said she wants to investigate the possibility of using a mentoring program that has been successful at Wamego. The program utilizes upperclassmen to bring students together. The students often gather in a place with neutral, more-relaxed atmosphere, away from school.
At Wamego, bullying and dropping out of school have decreased and “positivity” within the school has increased.
“We would like to go and see what they do,” Bacon said. “… We’d like to give it a try one year, and we’d like you to vote to do that.”
Superintendent John Heim suggested Bacon and the group outline her suggestions and turn them into Teresa Davidson of the district’s calendar committee.
F Students and board members exchanged an assortment of opinions when the talk turned to alcohol and drug policies.
“I think what we were wanting was … to get the board’s perspective about how it’s working and what you all were doing to make it apply to more than just athletes,” Amanda said.
Athletes as a group believe they are being targeted by the policy, she said.
Heim asked whether she thought the policy was working.
“I don’t think it’s made much of a difference,” she said. “If you know how to get away with it, you’re going to get away with it.”
Anna said that she has heard some students remark they would not violate the policy when their sports were in season.
Amanda said that some students have chosen not to use alcohol or drugs, and others have decided they will.
“The same students you hear talk about every weekend, ‘Oh, I got wasted,’ or something like that,” Amanda said.
“The policy is never ever going to touch some people. It just won’t,” Anna said. “You can’t make a policy that says ‘Everybody can’t do this’ because there are always going to be those people who defy the rules.”
Shuresa Kair said she believed some students do not use alcohol or drugs because they want to do well, not because they fear being caught.
Students involved in Amanda Stice’s theater program are dropped from productions if they violate the policy. They are required to sign a statement acknowledging the consequences if they drink or use drugs.
“I think Mrs. Stice’s policy is actually harsher than the school’s policy because she cares,” Anna said.
Another student complained that band members “just get away with it.”
Amanda Roberts wants enforcement to be consistent.
“Then there’s other coaches and people out there who say, ‘Well, I need this player on my team. Don’t do it again,’” Amanda said.
Principal Scott Sheldon interjected that some of the coaches had wanted a no-tolerance policy.
“You did it once when you were a freshman, you were done for four years,” he said.