Building a culture of respect
The more you practice, the more efficient you become.
Such is the case with the Principal/student Advisory Committee, which held its third meeting Thursday afternoon at the high school.
The meeting was focused on respect for both adults and students, and started with a 22-minute video of eight of the students' peers sharing bullying experiences and how they reacted.
"It's kind of an eye-opener to hear from the students as well because it shows you a new perspective," ninth-grader Callie Sutton said. "Rather than someone telling you something happened, it's like they tell you first-hand what happens." Her sister Kya was also surprised.
"Even as a student I didn't hear many of those stories, and it's easy to keep those stories inside and not tell people in fear of judgement," Kya said.
"There's a lot of challenges with respecting each other's differences and understanding that… somebody can have a different viewpoint than you but you can handle it in a respectful way," Scott Minnig, principal at Wapakoneta High School, said.
For Minnig, a key takeaway was the idea that people can have different opinions and should be respectful of them. "Knowing that they can count on each other is, I think, one of the things that we came across today," he said. "As they get to know each other more and
more, I think they're gonna feel more confident with that."
Since their first meeting in January, Minnig has managed to incorporate ideas presented by the committee. Those include advertising the new Student-assistancetime program within their building, through social media and on the digital sign in front of the building. The school now has an information TV in the building entrance with announcements.
"[This way] the kids can constantly see, know, and be updated as to what's going on," he said.
A new projector has been added in the cafeteria, and a Wapak Way sign has decorated the hallway. Tshirts featuring the Culture of Respect slogan were made available, A Dialetical Behavior Therapy Steps class - which teaches children how to respond to difficult situations appropriately will be implemented. Hopeline cards will be added in restrooms, and a mental health speaker will give a presentation on the 18th.
Overall, Minnig has been impressed with committee members.
"You can tell this is something that they care about and are listening," Minnig said. "When they watched the videos, the testimonials from their peers… and had a conversation about the things that they heard from their peers, I think that was pretty impactful," he said. "I think it was kind of eye-opening for many of them."
Regardless of how uncomfortable or shocking today's meeting was for students, it was a problem Minnig wanted students help him solve.
"It's really important that they are part of the solution, they are leaders within the building as far as what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate," Minnig said. "They need to back each other up, they need to support each other."
Callie agreed with him.
"I think it's just important, that students helping students and kind of understanding others and creating a better environment for them," she said.
"People need to realize that it's hard for adults to always try to fix the issues," Kya said. "… I'm almost an adult and I think it's important for us kids to help try to solve the problems on our own. We can also get advice from adults… but it's also very important to know that we're becoming adults and we have to do some things on our own."
Twelfth-grader Timothy Harrod thought the steps the school has implemented are making a positive, if slow, impact.
Delaney Jordan, an 11th-grader, felt the meeting went well overall.
"We talked about more than we have in the past," Jordan said. "I feel like for the past couple [meetings] its been mostly centered only on mental health, and I really like how we dug into a little bit of racism, homophobia, just other different topics that are happening at the school."
Minnig said over time the school plans to create videos with teachers and students speaking about ways to build healthy relationships. He also plans to create building maps to hand out early in the school year, create a showcase at the beginning of the year highlighting school clubs and community resources, establish teacher/student conferences, provide mental health training for teachers and offer a student mental health conference at the school.