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Students air frustrations at FUHSD dialogue
By Joann Liao
In an effort to help prevent school violence from striking here, Fremont Union High School District administrators met June 22 with students to find out what they really think about their schools.
"I don't think you can be in charge of giving directions to a school district without having an idea of what the students are thinking," said Joe Hamilton, superintendent of the FUHSD. "We had been conceiving of this [meeting] for some time. The situation at Littleton contributed to it. It made them [the Board of Trustees] not want to wait anymore."
District leaders wanted to find out specifically what students' concerns were about the climates on their campuses and whether they felt safe at their schools.
Students broke into small discussion groups and came up with lists of their top frustrations, which included the district's zero-tolerance policy and the lack of communication between students and teachers and administrators.
Zero-tolerance is the district's policy that forces suspension or expulsion when students bring drugs and weapons to school. The majority of students said they were unclear about what, precisely, the policy prohibited. Some said they felt the consequences for violation of the zero-tolerance policy were too severe. Other students said teachers needed to make more of an effort to listen to and talk to them, although several praised teachers who gave them individual attention.
School board members later joined the teens and listened to them discuss their concerns. Approximately 50 students--who took turns at the microphone, presenting their thoughts to the trustees--participated in the forum.
The consensus was that most students felt safe at school, and that although they thought their schools were not perfect, they did think that the schools did their best to improve.
The students believed that the session was effective, and that the trustees listened to what they were saying. "It was fun and informative and I'm happy with it," said Cheae Rice, a senior at Homestead High School.
"I'm really proud that they gave up a summer afternoon in the heat to join us for this," said Harry Bettencourt, the district director of student and community services.
The board decided it needed to hear what the students had to say, and it contacted the Public Dialogue Consortium, a communication consulting firm that trains discussion facilitators.
PDC members specially trained the 11 students who led the student discussion groups at the forum. The facilitators were nominated by their teachers for the training.
The other students who participated in the dialogue had been chosen by their principals. The aim was to gather an accurate representation of each of the schools' student bodies.
Each of the five schools in the district was represented, according to Bettencourt, as well as the Inter-district Council and students identified by the Santa Clara County Resource Center and the probation department.
Superintendent Joe Hamilton said that the board expects to be able to hold more dialogue meetings two or three times a year.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
