Parent Academy to be Held Prior to Conferences

With Parents of students at Howell High School already scheduled to come out to parent teacher conferences on Thursday, the school will also be the site of the first "Parent Academy" an hour prior. 

Titled, "Bullying and Cyber Bullying," the event is meant to serve as a chance for parents to not only learn more about this ever increasing threat to their children, but also how to help them deal with it and work through it going forward. Principal Zina Duerbig said she is hopeful the event will be beneficial for the parents who attend starting at 5:30 on Thursday night. 

Duerbig said it is just one more tool the parents will have to help their children. "It's to help parents understand how to help their children, their teenagers make correct choices which these days is not an easy process." Part of the discussion will be to talk about the new harassment, intimidation and bullying laws which are meant to help keep their children safe both in and out of school.

While bullying in schools is nothing new, Duerbig said the impact social media has on the students has changed things in many way. "Social media has come into our lives with such force," she said of websites like Facebook and Twitter. "There aren't the regulations that you might have with other means of communication and there is a tendency for people to be masked behind the screen and they feel they can say whatever they want."

It is that feeling of anonymity that Deurbig said can do the most damage. "They can almost destroy a person's life really by putting what they put out there. We as a society need to get a handle of how we're going to work this."

She also said that students are now learning that what they do in high school can stay with them well beyond their time with the Rebels. "They are teenagers, they're risk takers by nature," she said. "They don't understand the longterm consequences of their behaviors and that's where they desperately need their parents."

And it is not just as students where their actions on the internet can be felt. "Right now kids are beginning to get the message that future employers will go on and google and check their names and their facebook pages," Duerbig said. 

Depending on the success of the event, Duerbig said she hopes it is the first of many to be held at the school. There are also plans in the works for a similar event to help the parents of juniors at the school prepare for the standardized tests later in the year. 

The principal said she is hopeful that with it going along with conferences parents will want to come out for the extra hour. "Come out and see what this is all about," she said of her message to parents. "If you can pick something up on it, that's terrific and then go off to your conferences."