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Talk with your
kids about tough Issues! Kids are bring more than books to school Latest News NEW
A River
of Booze - South Fork Major Issues 2016/17
Oregon Crisis Trends Curry County, OR Oregon Healthy Teens Survey, Odd
Years, 8th and 11th Grades 2014/15-2023/17
School Report Cards Complaint Process Public
Complaint - KL
- (3/07/18) Our
Director Testifies at the Oregon Senate Interim Committee on
Education - 9/22/16
070218 Gordon Clay,
TheCitizensWhoCare.org, Brookings, OR Kudos: I acknowledge all of the good
things that are going on in the district as we hear
each month in the board meetings and in the
building reports. As I have acknowledged here
previous the LGBTQ + Straights effort on
bathroom signs. I hope the district did what was
reported in the Pilot to permanent placements in at
least the high school. This is important because as
the beginning of the 2018/19 school year, all
students, staff, and in all government
applications, people will now not be required to
identify as m or f but as x which is for those
identifying as non-binary. This acknowledgment that god
created a number of different orientations for
their people, students and staff can now, publicly,
identify as what they believe they are. This makes
it even more incumbent of schools to insure, as
students and staff come out, that they are
protected, as best that can be done, from any form
of harassment, or menacing acts and that the
perpetrators be held responsible at the maximum
allowed by law. Quote
"School districts should be prepared to handle a
request from a student to select a third option for
gender. Existing staff should be offered the option
to re-identify as non-binary if they so choose."
Unquote This brings me to my main
topic tonight which is directed to the board. Take
responsibility to actively direct the district to
get on top of what is going on on
campus. Let's start with the senior
prank fashioned after the movie "Purge".
(Insert.
At this point Board Chair Katherine
Johnson
interrupted my criticism of the board, whose
mission "... in partnership with students, parents,
staff, and community will cultivate a safe, highly
effective, and collaborative learning environment
where every student can succeed." So, the remainder
of my presentation was not allowed to be given at
their public meeting which, I believe, is in
violation of public meeting law. So
I continue here so that the public has access
to what I believe the school board is allowing to
happen.) (If you poo poo
the prank as a joke, I encourage you to head down
to Crescent City tonight where the fourth in the
series premieres at 7pm. In fact, I dare you.)
I heard about the "prank" the
night it happened. Included in
your packet is
(an
email) I sent to
editor of the Pilot, Robin Fornoff.
I was
called by the Pilot and asked who gave me the
information. I said I couldn't reveal my sources
because, in the past, it seems like whistle blowers
are the ones who are pursued, not the perpetrators.
I sent a second
email
(in
packet)
outlining some questions which the writer could ask
school officials. The Pilot couldn't get any
confirmation on claims of what went on for the
students. (story).
So I wrote a letter
to the editor
(in
packet)
requesting
anyone who had a student who had a negative impact
from the quote "joke" unquote, as reported in the
Pilot, to not join the Facebook Frenzie, but
to learn what the policies are to deal with these
kinds of situations and take those routes. From
that letter a number of people and a couple of
students have contacted me with some pretty
horrific stories that we are pursuing. Azalea girls
coming to school drunk. High school students
testing a drug before class, at least one getting
too sick to stay in school (was thought they had to
go to the hospital), student attacks on middle and
high school staff, student's doing some pretty
horendous things to other students, and on and
on In April,
around the same time that 6th, 8th and 11th graders
were taking the Pride Survey, a Surveymonkey was
released called BHHS Subtle Bullying. 217
students participated, mostly sophomores and
Juniors, with some pretty damaging revelations.
Overview in (in
your packet)
Prior Pride Survey's have pointed out the severity
of bullying in our county, so this isn't a
surprise. The Pride Surveys have been warning about
it for years. What we know
is that 75% of school shootings involved shooters
being bullied and a large percentage of students
dropping out are due to bullying. We have a healthy
home school community because of bullying. It's
time the Board takes strong action to implement
stronger consequences to deal with perpetrators,
make it safe for students and staff to report
incidences without retribution, and require the
district to develop a comprehensive suicide
prevention, intervention and postvention crisis
plan before the start of the 2018/19 school
year. My prediction
is that it's going to be a long, hot summer. It's
time to take effective steps to cool things down
before the start of school. You only have 64
days. 733 =
4.9 Resource:
Executive
Numbered Memo 088-2023-18: New Gender Code for
2018-19 060618 Gordon Clay,
TheCitizensWhoCare.org, Brookings, OR Kudos Regarding the rather
extensive new communication plan that we will hear
more about this evening. It includes a lot of great
words and ideas. I look forward to the plan
actually being implemented in the spirit of
transparency and Bruin PRIDE. I really like the plan for
Sept around bullying, harassment and suicide
prevention - something that hopefully will continue
throughout the entire school year, which is needed
to be successful. My hope is that it will include
extensive staff and student training on those
subjects. The CDC found the suicide
rate for children age 10 to 14 doubled from 2007 to
2014. What we know is that any form of bullying,
whether face-to-face or online, is known to be
connected to depression and suicidal behaviors in
young people. Quote "The media that children are
exposed to gets more and more sophisticated and
more and more graphic..." Unquote Series 2 of 13
Reason Why is a good example and would be an ideal
place to start by communicating about the dangers
of this second season to all students and parents
before the summer break. I compiled 53 pages of
important information on the web for the original
series and another 26 pages already regarding this
year's series with the hope that the district will
do what many district's did last year and this year
to make parents aware of the dangers the series
presents, particularly, to youth. It is still rated for adult
audiences only which is Netflix way of promoting
it's content to tweens and teens anxious to do
things they're not supposed to since there are no
real controls for anyone who has access to
Netflix. While the series continues to
glamorize suicide, an added twist this year in
episode 13, the finale which suggests there's going
to be a 3rd season. They present a one-minute and
34 second very graphic and violent anal
penetration. Yes. A minute and 34 seconds. If you
have access to Netflix, I hope you check out what
many of your students have already seen. I would encourage the
district to provide parents with a copy of "Tips
for parents to talk with their children about 13
Reasons Why and Suicide" Show
produced by the American Foundation for Suicide
Prevention so they can learn about the series and
steps they can take to make it safer for their
children. I hope the district finds it
important enough to take steps to encourage
students who are going to watch it to (1) not
stream more than one episode at a time, and (2)
watch it with their parents to discuss the issues
that come up in the series that come up in their
own school experience. Why? Because there was a
considerable spike in suicides, visits to the ER
and calls to crisis lines in the months following
the premier of Season 1. To this day, when I talk
with students, particularly at health fairs like
this last weekend at the Del Norte County
Fairgrounds, I ask them (1) have they watched
it, (2) do they know anyone who really got
triggered by it, (3) do your parents know
you've seen it, and if so, (4) have you talked with
them about it. Almost every student said their
parents don't know. “Education is really
important, And schools play an important
role.” A report "The Effectiveness
of School-Based Mental Health Services for
Elementary-Aged Children" in Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry states quote "Considering
serious barriers precluding youth from accessing
necessary mental health care, the present analysis
suggests child psychiatrists and other mental
health professionals and school officials are wise
to recognize the important role that school
personnel, who are naturally in children’s
lives, can play in decreasing child mental health
problems." Unquote But school personnel need
training to develop the confidence in order to
intervene on their student's behalf. This August
and September would be an ideal time to accomplish
a training like Response or other suicide
prevention program. I hope you take this
opportunity to take this proposal
seriously. Resources
The
Effectiveness of School-Based Mental Health
Services for Elementary-Aged Children: A
Meta-Analysis
/www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(17)31926-3/fulltext Youth
suicide rates are rising. School and the Internet
may be to blame www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/05/30/youth-suicide-rates-rising-school-and-internet-may-blame/356539001/
050218 Gordon Clay,
TheCitizensWhoCare.org, Brookings, OR Kudos This is Mental Health
Awareness Month and I understand your whole staff
did the ACE's training last Friday - I hope it was
at least the 2 hour program that gets into
individual experiences. I hope you get a sense of
the situation all of the students you shuffle off
into a GED program have already suffered, and
depriving them of their rightful, paid-for, public
education, is a situation that will negatively
impact them and our community for the rest of their
lives. I hope this changes. I hope you make the decision
to train the entire staff, including certified, in
something like Response, Youth Mental Health First
Aid, or QPR before September which is Suicide
Awareness Month. Mental Heath First Aid will be
held at SWOOC May 25 and the ASIST 2-day training
at SWOC May 29-30. Kudos with the bathroom
policy With a
district goal of better communication with the
community I hope you take to heart in the purpose
of School Board Policy BDDH - Public
Participation in Board Meetings (Quote "Questions
asked by the public, when possible, will be
answered by the board chair or referred to the
superintendent." Unquote A perfect
opportunity was lost several board meetings ago
when a parent with two kids asked about the
bathroom signs. He hadn't seen them in the paper,
and didn't know much about them, but thought that
it made bathrooms co-ed like Ally McBeal proposed
20 years ago. This was a
perfect example that no further investigation was
needed. Utilizing BDDH, it would have been very
easy if the Superintendent was asked to give a
brief description to clarify who has
access. Though it might not have changed his
mind, it at least provided an opportunity for the
community to hear the outstanding position the
board had taken on the issue instead of the
brush-off I think he felt. 23 sexual
orientations. I think anyone who wonders what
god was thinking when they created 23 different
sexual orientations, would benefit from seeing
Gender Revolution with Katie Couric on Netflix. I
would recommend staff members have a bunch of pot
lucks at people's homes who have Netflix, watch the
hour and 38 program and then discuss what they've
learned. The chart
I passed out lists 17 of the 23 sexual
orientations. What I found very interesting was the
statistic that one in 100 births result in a person
whose body differs from the standard male or female
body. Thank-you 416 Resources 040418 Gordon Clay,
TheCitizensWhoCare.org, Brookings, OR There's a lot
to share this evening. April 1-7 is
National Testicular Cancer Awareness Week. There
was an article in last Wednesday paper about it.
Testicular cancer has a very fast onset. If not
detected early, the cancerous tumors can grow
rapidly with the ability to double in size in just
10 - 30 days A self-exam is easy to do in the
shower once a month. In
English https://bit.ly/2ISLlSK and in Spanish
https://bit.ly/2G8elUN.
Unchecked, testicular cancer is not a pretty
picture. https://bit.ly/2G7NLLK
7% of deaths are boys under 18 Testicular Cancer is
one of the easiest cancers to cure IF it is
detected in time. --------------- 2018
Student Wellness Survey The Strength
in Communities Oregon Suicide Prevention conference
in Clackamas a couple of weeks ago was excellent.
Lots of programs around youth and their
participation. The district would benefit if
someone besides myself went. Next year it's March
12-14.. There was
some talk around the importance of the upcoming
2018 Student Wellness survey. A couple of concerns
by the students were: they weren't clear that
it is anonymous and confidential and it was
bothersome when the administrator would walk around
the room. This is the first year in a while that
Azalea 6th graders will join the rest of the county
in the survey. To insure that we get the best
possible reflection of what our students
experience, it is important that they understand
that it is anonymous so their truth is
important. Show
The
Paper and Pencil Administration Instructions on how
to administer the survey is most important for
administers to review. Response In your
packet is a letter from Tim Wilson,
Show
Principle
and future Superintendent for Gold Beach School
DIstrict regarding the Response suicide prevention
program that we offered last year. Gold Beach and
the Curry County Juvenile department took us up on
it. The charity has money budgeted for Brookings
and Port Orford to participate this year. That
money goes away if not utilized. This program is
for teachers, students AND parents and is
totally funded right now so I hope you will take
advantage of this program that is one of 6
recommended by the Oregon Health Authority. To date
I don't believe the district has participated in
any of the six. Up
River Teens and
alcohol parties: Last April
there was a big party up river. Over 100 kids, most
from Brooking-Harbor, include some tweens. Lots of
booze. Lots of drugs. Dealers actually announced it
on facebook before it happened. Brooking's senior
athletes were trying to pick fights with
underclassmen. Some younger students were very
drunk or high or both. April is Alcohol Awareness
Month. Do whatever it takes to keep your kids safe.
Don't be the families that loose anyone coming back
from one of these drunk fests. ---------------------------------- CPR
Question: Are all of our graduating seniors
proficient in CPR which is required by law SB-79
enacted starting with the 2015/16 school
year? State of
Our Schools: Examining Oregon's high schools
through students' eyes
Show
- 41 page PDF esearched and written by Oregon
students giving their interesting
perspective. The Condom
Challenge is back. It's not what you think.
Google it. And finally
to know about a new book called The Boy Crisis
about what's happening to boys and what they
often expenrence in the public school system that
negatively impacts them for the rest of their
lives. That's it for
this evening. Resources Testicular Cancer
Awareness Week http://bit.ly/1RvdWfH 030718 Gordon Clay,
TheCitizensWhoCare.org, Brookings, OR In reference to the packet
you will have in front of you. Page
1 is a summary of current
data on suicidality.. Suicides in the U.S. in 2016
have risen to 45 thousand, the highest ever and up
1.8% from the previous year. That translates to
over one million
(1,124,125) attempts. Page
2 Suicides in Oregon last
year were the highest they've ever been at 795,
that's 256 more than 20 years ago. Oregon ranks
13th in the nation in suicides per capita yet is
only 26th by population. Suicide is the second leading
cause of death for Oregon's 10-14, 15-24, and 25-34
year olds. In Curry County, suicides
were up 18% from last year to 13, the second
highest number ever and 5 more than we had 20 years
ago. Our two highest years were 2013 and 15 with 14
suicides. Page
3 is a listing of the 37
suicidal subjects that have happen in curry county
in the past two months, 27 of them in Brookings,
almost one every other day. Page
4 Pride Surveys -
Oregon Look down to Suicidality
where you find, particularly for 8th and 11th
graders, a steady percent increase in students who
are hopeless, seriously considered suicide and
actually attempting suicide every year since 2009
when data began being reported by county.
Page
5 Pride surveys -
Curry County Kudos. Looking down to the
section on Suicidality, hopelessness, seriously
considered suicide and actually attempted suicide
have dropped down nicely last year for both 8th and
11th graders, reversing the direction the average
Oregon school district is taking. The good news is that we
haven't had a student suicide that I know of since
2012 when we had two. And one happen on the 26th of
March. There is a granite memorial stone in the
lawn of the high school in front of what used to be
known as the Buddy Bench. Check it out. I hope some of the work I
have done throughout the county these last six
years has helped to reverse this trend. I never
found out if the thousand plus yellow wrist bands I
provided the schools got distributed or if they're
still around. But I thank the district for
everything that is being done to address the
seriousness of this situation. Because, the scary
part from last year's survey is that 35 of this
year's freshman class reported that they had been
hopeless last year, 25 said they had seriously
considered suicide and 12 had actually attempted
suicide. (I know one of them) For this year's
seniors, the numbers were 37, 18 and 9. My question
is, "How many suicide attempts are acceptable?" One
is unacceptable to me. I hope that is true for you
as well. My goal is to have ever
student know the 741741 crisis text line, that they
all have it in their cell phones, have a card in
their wallet, just in case, and hopefully have a
semicolon button on their back pack or jacket and a
yellow wrist band to let everyone know that they
care about their fellow students. And I hope
the teachers and administrators have learned the
warning signs and are obtaining the skills to
become confident in dealing with the risk behaviors
they see every day. So, last Thursday at 4:14
p.m., I received an email from the people at
Popsockets that said yes, they will produce a
special popsocket for us with our 741741 crisis
text line logo. And, like I did last year when I
got funding for the Response suicide prevention
program for students, parents and administrators,
for any school in the county that wanted to
implement this Oregon Health Authority recommend
program, I will go out and do my best to secure
funding for any middle or high school in the county
who is seriously interested in some phase of this
program to hopefully get this pop socket on the
back of every student's cell phone in the county
before summer break. The information is in your
packet. Let me know soon. And finally, April 27th is
the national Day of Silence. I've included
information on ways schools can participate and I
hope, like was done several years ago, that
LGBTQ and straight students will band together
and experience a tiny bit of what its like to be
born gay or transgender. Resources A Guide to
Bystander Interventiono www.splcenter.org/20171005/splc-campus-guide-bystander-intervention 020718 Gordon Clay,
TheCitizensWhoCare.org, Brookings, OR Kudos: To K-School. I really like
that each building report starts by focusing on
what percentage of kidos are showing up to learn.
And especially in Kindergarden because that's where
an interest in education begins and the interest
getting it through public education If the kids
feel safe and get engaged in a social environment,
it reduces the interest in other alternative
methods of education. It wasn't that long ago the
those numbers were in the ___. Kudos for the report on
graduation rates. I ask you to reconsider
taking the chart that shows over 30 complaint
policies and including it in the proposed Version
1. BDDH Public
Participation in Board Meetings under Comments
Regarding Staff Members reads, and I quote
"The board will not hear comments regarding any
individual district staff member." Unquote. As
written, that includes positive statements about
individuals. This sentence is also in
BDDH-AR. In the third sentence, it was
changed to singular yet still says
"complaints" KLD - Delete. If this
happen, reference to it needs to be deleted from
policy EEACC-AR. ------------------------------- The second flyer in your
packet is the cover and index page for Developing
Comprehensive Suicide Prevention, Intervention and
Postvention Protocols: A toolkit for Oregon
Schools. It's a 95 page PDF available on the
web. ------------------- Third is part of a 20 page
suicide resource guide I put together to those who
took the ASIST training here last summer. This
just list the suicide prevention trainings that I
know about. I encourage more staff and
teachers to take some suicide prevention training
before we're shocked into it. I'm sure you know
about the Washington State University quarterback
who took his life three weeks ago before the senior
bowl. It moved the legislature to immediately pass
some legislation to require more trainings of
therapists prior to getting their license renewed.
I hope we don't have to experience a wake-up call
like that. Monday I got a call from a
counselor at Crescent Elk middle school because a
young student had attempted twice in the last week.
I heard about it from the kids at Redwood so that
kind of news travels fast and hopefully they were
able to get a handle on it before other kids tried
to copy it. We did a program in September
with the school with the wrist bands and cards and
they called me and wanted more for a meeting they'd
called with staff yesterday. They were going to ask
all staff to wear a wrist band and memories the
741741 crisis text line and encourage talking with
the students about suicide. --------------------------------- Tide Pod Challenge - Teens
are putting detergent pods in their mouth and
posting videos on line. In 2017, poison control
centers received reports of more than 10,500
exposures to highly concentrated packed laundry
detergent by children 5 and younger. It could be a
life threatening situation. Swallowing even a small
amount can cause diarrhea and omitting and could
find its way into the lungs causing breathing
difficulties. This isn't the first time thrill
seeking teens have eaten things for Internet
notoriety. Remember the cinnamon challenge They
would swollon a tablespoon of dry cinnamon with no
water, gag and spew out a cloud of orange dust.
This challenge could result in long lasting
lesions, scarring and inflammation of the airway or
even lung damage. -------------------- Finally, I'm not computer
savey and am working at putting our SOS 741741
logo on the interenet so that anyone who wants to
can get a pop socket like this one. We'll give you
the logo and you order your own. The unique ones
cost $15 each and if you order two, the shipping is
free. Well, that's the news for
tonight. Thanks for listening. Resources A Guide to
Bystander Interventiono www.splcenter.org/20171005/splc-campus-guide-bystander-intervention 010318 Gordon Clay,
TheCitizensWhoCare.org, Brookings, OR Kudos: In was good to hear
two words from last weeks report discussing the
reasons for the terribly low math and language
art's scores on the report card. Perseverance and
Grit. And that all seniors will be taking the SATs
this year. Knowing the aversion many educators have
to standardized tests, however, is that they do
provide comparative data to gauge how our students
are doing to those outside of Curry County, where
most of our graduates will end up. Out in the real
world and having to deal with the completes it will
present them. To give another major indicator on
how Freshmen through Scenarios will do in life is
to administer the Grit test to all of them and use
the results. You might include staff in that
testing. Proven a very clear indicator of success
in college, career, even creating a family life. It
was perseverance those two students had that got
them Level IV status. One of the things that Angela
Duckworth talks about is the use of praise. And
how, in most test cases, actually doesn't produces
short or long term success, if it isn't coupled
with direction on what needs to improve. And for
those students with Grit and anyone who wants to
improve on their job, or in life or cooking a great
hamburger, it's being able to look at the poor
results, not with a list of excuses that everyone
nods their heads on, but looking at ------------------ I have been told that
students were being instructed not to ask if
someone is thinking about wanting to die by suicide
or thinking about killing themselves. I guess that
comes from a meme that by doing so it will put the
idea in their head. This goes directly against
everything we know and I have provided a list from
the Oregon
Department of Education, the World Health
Organization, Mayo Clinic, NAMI, and
Psychology
Today.
to name a few, that that is simply a myth.
That kind of
unsubstantiated rumor reinforces the stigma that
works to prevent teens in crisis from letting
anyone know what's going on and stops them from
asking for help. What research tells us is
that 80% of teens who die by suicide have given
clear indication of their intention. Last April's
Healthy Teen Survey reported that 15 freshmen and 9
seniors indicated that they had actually attempted
suicide in the 30 days before the survey. This
doesn't include those attempting in the other 11
months of the year. Do you know who they are? If
so, are they getting the help they need? If
you don't know who they are, that means to me the
staff and students need more training to recognize
the signs and know what to do. The school is
required by law to train 100% of our high school
students in CPR. Yet suicide prevention training
would save a lot more lives. The Crisis Text Line has been
around saving lives for over four years with over
53 millions texts being exchanged. How many of you
know what that number is? How many of your
teachers and students know the crisis text number
by heart? The district has received
semicolon buttons and over a thousand yellow wrist
bands and wallet cards with the number. We're
coming into the Spring and as we get closer to
summer, stress levels increase drastically leading
to higher levels of anxiety and depression, both
aspects leading to suicide. I encourage you to be
proactive. That text number is 741741. I have
included a 14 page school action guide in the
packet to help build awareness. The good news is that, for
the first time in at least six years the 2017
healthy teen is showing a rather substantial
reduction in our students suicide ideation and
attempts. While we are still above the
average Oregon school in most bullying and violence
categories in the survey, the use of alcohol and
marijuana is trending down nicely. In your
packet A sheet
listing the stigma excerpts (Evidence supporting
asking a troubled friend if they are thinking of
suicide or thinking of killing
themselves) 14 page guide
on how to spread word about the Crisis Text Line in
the school district so that more students will be
aware of 741741 and that they'll feel empowered to
use it when they need it. The 2016/17
Report Card analysis of Curry County School school
District's performance compared to the average
Oregon school, and more importantly comparing us to
the 20 schools that are Like us And finally,
I put together a chart on Health Outcomes for
Oregan and California which includes the
information for Curry County and our two neighbors,
Del Norte and Coos I resolve to continue to
present evidence-based information to add to the
public's knowledge and hopefully those who have a
desire to improve their performance, where
applicable, will see how this information can help
them do a better job. For those who are just happy
with Kudos, I will present those as
well. Resources A Guide to
Bystander Interventiono www.splcenter.org/20171005/splc-campus-guide-bystander-intervention |
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