Hello. I'm Cecile Calibo, one of the Guidance Counselors at the high school. I graduated from Ohio Northern University and am now living Sharon, Pennsylvannia. I have five kids and I live with my husband near the school. The commute is great! I love helping the troubled kids that come and talk to me. It's rewarding to help them find the right path to take in order for them to be successful. The students at this school are great to work with and I have always been very content with my job.
Being a Guidance Counselor for the students at this school has been really enjoyable until these recent events with the 'Punk Rocky' Myspace page. I have been very busy talking to the students involved to get them off this issue and on to a successful path. I am aware that many parents are outraged by the severity of action we are taking. It's important to take control of this so that the rest of our students have a safe learning environment. If we didn't take action on this the rest of the parents would be upset because finding pro-hemp articles on our students myspace page is a big deal.
There was a recent case in which a 15 year old was found dead in his bed after overdosing on Oxycontin the night before. After their child died, the parents searched on their sons Myspace page and found exchanges with his peers about different drugs and how to make them. If they would have found this before they could have stopped this overdosing from ever happening.
From this case you can see that it is important to get involved so tragedies like this never happen to our students. This is a serious issue and you should trust the High School's Administration to take care of it. We have to take these pro-hemp articles very seriously because we need to prevent the students from taking part in this.
12 comments:
Cecile,
The recent happenings at our school have been a big disappointment. I no longer tell people that I went there, and I have a hard time telling people that I even teach there. It was a big bummer that this kids are so self centered and decided to ruin the name of the school. It is good that the kids are able to talk to you about these issues. It is a rough time, but since they have good people like you to talk to everything should be fine!
Thanks and keep up the good work!
TY LONGBY
Mrs. Calibo,
I think you are on the brink of the schools' domain of power. I am undecided on this issue. On one hand I think the school has a purpose only for educating students and not necessarily keeping them “safe” outside of school. Who is the school system to tell students what to think? I would argue that, unlike the other cases that were recently brought to attention, pro-hemp articles are a freedom of speech issue. Therefore, the school has no business “regulating” such advertisements.
On the other hand, such articles can lead to illegal and potentially fatal actions. My solution to the inner conflict would be to allow the school it's own freedom of speech. It should be protocol to allow the school to notify parents when such articles arise and what potentially dangerous trends are popular. However, I think the school system doesn't have the power or the right to remove such articles or punish the students who post or support them.
Sincerely,
Lyla Marx
Student Body President
Grand Heights High School
Dear Cecile,
You seem to be a very good counselor, and I'm delighted that you love your job so much. But I think that you can't judge these students by the action they took part in. It doesn't mean they are all bad kids, they just had a brain fart and made some bad descisions. I feel it is unfair for these students to be severly punished, except for the one student who was accused of rape. Also I think that it is an outrage to try and get the students that have already graduated in trouble. Take some time and think this one over Cecile, go back to your high school days.
Love, Lloyd Christmas
Cecile:
I am proud of our faculty in the school for joining together to stomp out this atrocity that is happening with our students. What these kids do outside of school specifically represents the community they spend so much of their time in, GHHS.
Take care!
James Johnson, Dean of Students
Ms Calibo,
I understand that being a guidance counselor and dealing with issues like these must be difficult. The students should already know that anyone can see anything on the internet. But I don't think that what the students do outside of school is a threat to a "safe learning environment" at Grand Heights.
-Herald Hounderson
Cecile,
I agree with your statement about how these drug problems at Grand Heights should be dealt with however, you never really stated the manner these issues should be dealt with. Do you think expulsion was a good idea or do you think punishment in these instances should be less severe? Even though I believe students should have a punishment, I don't believe the severity should be too great. I mean, everyone makes mistakes. I even made some mistakes when I was a young whipper snapper.
Edna Quiggle
Mrs. Calibo-
I understand that the magazine was started at school and that the school doesn't want that going around but the actions the students took were not at school. I think that the only thing the school could do would be block the website or shut down the show but they should not be able to punish the kids for what they did outside of school. They can be punished for making it public and bringing it into school but not for doing it because it was not at school. It isn't right for the administration to spread it's powers outside of the four walls. anything in school, yeah go ahead and punish but outside... that is not for them.
April Shauers
Cecile,
Thank you for agreeing with me. It feels good to be treated like an adult. I did remember though administration giving us some rule book thing when I went to Grand Heights. But me and all my friends knew almost every single rule in the book so when we got the new years book we wouldn't pay any attention. If the rules about this privacy issue were in the rule book students wouldn't even know because no one pays attention to the rule book. I feel it would be unfair for teachers to say that they can do what they want because it's in the rule book. If it is this big of a deal they should have the teachers tell the students to get the point across.
Frank
Miss Calibo,
Do you really think that by finding people drinking pictures on Facebook, you are doing a good thing. All you are doing is ruining people's sports seasons. If Dave wasn't suspened from football right no, we probably would have won last Friday. You aren't going to prevent kids from doing any of these things like drinking. If anything, you might just teach them a lesson about not putting pictures online of them drinking.
-Joe Hyland
Ms. Calibo,
I think that you are wrong in that it is your responsibility to take part in this issue. I understand that you are concerned for the youth in the community but I don't think it is your job to be involved. I think that it should be left up to the authorities and I think that it is not apart of your job to check what kids are doing online, out of school, on their own free time.
Comment was by Ruth Burgandy Above
Ms. Calibo,
This is Valerie Smith. You are my favorite school counselor I would just like to say. As far as the issue at hand I find that what the administration is doing is with the right idea in mind. I do support the decision of the administration to get involved in the scandal. I also think that the school took the punishment a bit beyond their power. I don't think that the administration should have had the power to punish former students. I think that if the former student was going to get into trouble then it's not the school's responsibility to punish him. I also think that it was unfair for him to get into trouble when he wasn't specifically in the pictures. I just think that in the future the administration should really think about who they have power over. I would say that the answer to that question is only the students who attend the school. I think for the school to seem more legitimate in their searching through belongings they should get a warrant of some sort or proof that they are allowed to do those sorts of things because it seemed like a violation on the schools part. I want to keep the reputation of the school up just like the faculty, but there is a line that i believe was crossed. ALways hoping for the best, Valerie Smith
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