Needham Rockets to Top in Peer Leadership Competition

From the Office of Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey:

Needham High School had a perfect season this year – not on an athletic field, but in a county-wide competition organized by Norfolk DA Michael W. Morrissey to support peer leadership and discourage youth substance abuse.

The new competition, dubbed “Team Rival,” pits local high schools against their traditional athletic rivals to encourage participation in a series of constructive events and functions that designed to build a school culture around healthy choices.

“We know that by high school, students look heavily to their peers in deciding what risks to take and what decisions to make,” District Attorney Morrissey said. “Our objective is to identify, support and help the students in each school who lead by example.”

Team Rival was split to four different challenges in 2015-2016: the Peer Leadership Conference, P.S.A. Videos, Coalition Meetings, and the Adventures in Respect Battle. Each school is granted 25 points for completion of a challenge, and the school that finishes with the most points wins Team Rival in its respective bracket - Needham comfortably bested rival Wellesley.

The Peer Leadership Conference held at Gillette Stadium in October involved 10 students from each public high school to spread different ideas about substance abuse prevention. Each school that attended received 5 hours of community service credit. In the second activity, students were asked to film public service announcements that would be informative commercials about the harms of substance abuse. (All PSA clips can be seen here.)

The third challenge was involvement in local substance abuse coalition meetings and events, in which students could receive community service credit for attending activities instituted by the coalitions. The Adventures in Respect workshop, sponsored by YMCAs across the county, promoted the concept of good-decision making by working cohesively in team-building obstacle course challenges.

The Needham Rockets finished with a perfect score of 100. At the October Peer Leadership Conference, Needham’s leadership group consisted of five high school students, three girls and two boys. And at the Adventures in Respect team-building challenge, they had seven other students turn out and succeed in the activities at Camp Wigwanawan. Needham was one of four high schools to finish with a perfect score in Team Rival.

After a year of strong participation between rival high schools in the district, DA Morrissey has renewed the Team Rival initiative 2016-2017 academic year.

Photo: Needham High students , including this group representing the school at DA Michael Morrissey’s Adventures in Respect event, were tops in Norfolk County in a year-long competition meant to improve public safety.