Tippecanoe Valley Offers Programs To Keep Kids Safe And In School
David Slone
Times-Union Staff Writer
AKRON - Programs to keep students safe and in school highlighted the Tippecanoe Valley School Board meeting Monday night.
Teacher and Peer Facilitaters advisor Kris Walker explained a new program through Tippecanoe Valley High School's Peer Facilitaters group. Called I-Safe, the program's purpose is to keep students safe and responsible on the Internet.
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Walker said he was trained to be an I-Safe trainer last year with a goal of training high school students to train elementary school students to be safe online. After training the high school students on I-Safe, the students wrote the entire curriculum. It took them three tries to get the curriculum to its present form.
Now, the high school students are teaching students at Akron Elementary School about being safe online. Mentone Elementary students will be taught next.
"It's a completely different world" with computers and the Internet now, Walker said, then when he was in school.
The program won't go lower than students in third grade, Walker said. It's now for third through fifth grade, and eventually middle school.
Walker said they asked third-graders how many had a MySpace page. Of about 23, Walker said 13 said they had one, with three of them lying about their age to get a MySpace account. Teachers planned to talk to those students' parents about the dangers of the young students having a MySpace account.
With the "cool" high school students talking to the elementary school kids about the dangers of the Internet, Walker said they were more likely going to listen.
"The idea is to keep kids safe in everything they do," Walker said.
Assistant Superintendent Brett Boggs said it is a wonderful thing that is being done with I-Safe.
Fifteen TVHS students are involved in the program, and Walker said he is very proud of them.
"He's changing our little part of the world," TVHS Principal Kirk Doehrmann said of Walker.
Mike Schmidt, TVHS assistant principal, then told the school board about a committee he's formed to deal with students on probation in Kosciusko and Fulton counties.
Schmidt said since he's joined the school corporation, he's seen a trend of students trying to hide stuff. Through digging, he found out that some of those students were on probation in either Kosciusko or Fulton counties. That made him aware there was a huge gap between law enforcement, the school corporation and the counties' probation departments.
A committee was formed and has grown to include 14 members. The committee meets 1-1/2 to 3 hours per meeting, and includes Schmidt, probation officers, Mentone Town Marshal Jim Eads and a deputy, a guidance counselor, a mental health specialist, TVHS teacher Jeff Shriver and others.
Schmidt said he prepares an agenda for each meeting, and the committee has a mission statement, which they are driven by.
"It's not a 'we got you' committee," said Schmidt. All names of students stay within the committee.
Students now come to see Schmidt and tell him they have a probation hearing coming up and ask him if he will put in a word for them. Sometimes, Schmidt does, sometimes not.
Committee members now talk to each other outside of the meetings. They bring stuff to the meetings to discuss, Schmidt said.
Among the other things the committee will talk about, Schmidt said, are fights, alcohol and drug use, random searches and gang activity like SUR13 in Akron and Warsaw. They also touch on issues like technology, texting threats, graduation degrees and have guest speakers. The Kosciusko County Gang Task Force will be one of the planned presenters to the committee.
"We talk about all sorts of issues," said Schmidt. "... it's been real positive, a good group, a lot of serious issues we've dealt with."
The last program presented to the school board Monday was Valley's General Education Intervention Process.
Doehrmann said it provides support for students and keeps them from falling through the cracks. He said they are trying to catch students early and make sure they get out of school on time.
In the process, Doehrmann said they review students' grades at midterm and see who has several F's. Teachers also keep track of students' grades in real time and what homework a student may be missing.
Once a student is referred, Doehrmann said they set up a meeting with the student's parents. Teachers who have the student receive a GEI form to fill out on the student. The teachers list the student's strengths and weaknesses, behaviors and the number of times they've talked to a student.
The GEI form is then gone over with the student and their parents.
Strategies for academic, attendance and behavior concerns are addressed.
The GEI process, Doehrmann said, has "been pretty successful."
At the high school this year, Doehrmann said they've had more than 120 GEIs. School Board President Mark Wise said that he thought over time, that number should drop. Doehrmann agreed.
Rod Eaton, board member, said the process shows to the student that everyone cares about them.
"You're holding students, holding parents accountable, but you've got to do that, and it shows you care, too," said Boggs.
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