Students get life lessons
Focus on healthy relationships, abuse prevention
Over 900 seventh-graders from local schools gathered at the Porterville Church of the Nazarene Friday for the fifth annual Central California Youth Summit to learn how to live healthier lives online and in the real world.
With an event slogan of “Knowledge is Power,” the fourhour event focused on providing resources, education, and hope for both students and adults, and equipping students with the tools to successfully navigate the social environments of the modern world.
“This is our most vulnerable group — our youth,” said Betty Luna of Family Crisis Center, who coordinated the event. “We hope to make a change in the way they think about themselves, how they can first love themselves before getting into a relationship instead of expecting someone else to love them because they’re lacking something emotionally in their own minds and hearts. I think that’s why we really wanted to reach this group.”
After a brief welcome and some instructions for the day in the main auditorium, the students were separated into three smaller groups and progressed through three presentations, which addressed social media awareness, suicide prevention and healthy relationships. After cycling through all the presentations, the students reconvened in the auditorium for a panel discussion led by the presenters and closing comments.
The presentation on social media awareness was presented by the office of the Tulare County District Attorney, and focused on safe practices when using social media and smart phone technology. The potential dangers of social media were driven home with a demonstration video by popular Youtube personality Coby Persin, during which he persuaded three middle school aged girls to meet him in person using a fictitious Facebook profile.
Rene Solis, school community liaison for the Tulare County Office of Education, led the presentation on suicide prevention, and talked candidly with students about identifying suicidal behavior, encouraging them to take action using an honest and proactive approach.
“When people are thinking about committing suicide, they usually don’t feel like they’re in control of their own life, and so the only thing they can control becomes whether they’re living or not,” said Solis. “Don’t lie to them and say ‘it’s all going to be OK’ when you don’t know. Don’t say to someone, ‘I’m always going to be here for you,’ because you won’t always be available. Tell them you’ll always care about them instead. Be honest with them.”
In the presentation on healthy relationships, speakers from Community Services Employment Training identified four different types of abuse: physical, emotional, mental and cyber-bullying. Then they played videos with actors depicting abusive scenarios and challenged the students to identify what type of abuse was being committed. They concluded their presentation by displaying a pledge encouraging students to refrain from all types of abuse in their relationships.
Sharon Kamberg, superintendent of Burton School District, felt that the event offered valuable lessons in leadership for her 150 students in attendance.
“I believe that leadership for our students is vital,” Kamberg said, “and teaching them to be responsible with [presentations] planned here today for them, it’s an amazing opportunity for our youth.”
In addition to being coordinated by Family Crisis Center, the event was sponsored by Burton School District, Porterville Unified School District, and community business partners. Unlike past years, this year’s event was limited to seventh-graders, which allowed the presenters to focus on topics that were particularly relevant to students in a crucial stage of their development.
“When they focused in on seventh grade this year, it really established a concentrated effort to meet the needs of an impressionable age level,” said Kamberg. “There’s a big difference between a seventh-grader and a ninthgrader, even though it’s only two years. There is so much for this age group to learn coming out of a self-contained classroom into [a middle school environment] where they’ve got seven teachers and opportunities for decision making. Teaching them the consequences of those choices is important at that age.”
At the conclusion of each presentation, students were given the opportunity to ask questions, either anonymously or openly, on the topics discussed. Luna stated that after the first session of the presentation on suicide prevention, one student was compelled to approach the event staff and ask for assistance with their self-harming behavior.
“This information is going to back to the teachers, and they’ll be more observant of who they are teaching every day,” said Luna.
Jason Pommier, public information officer for PUSD, stated that law enforcement members were also in attendance in case students wanted to talk with them about their experiences, and that an important component of the day’s events was to give students ample opportunity to speak up about what is troubling them.
“We want to provide information to the kids letting them know that there are resources out there,” said Pommier.