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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 2020)
6A | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 | SIUSLAW NEWS FORUM from page 5A “I guess family issues and trust issues. Just trust issues in general,” she said. “Because if you don’t talk to your family, usually you don’t trust adults or anything like that. You get trust issues and you don’t know how to feel.” JJ asked why students in the elementary school felt more safe and emotionally secure than middle and high school- ers. “Because they’re little and don’t have anything to be afraid of,” Landon said. Evelyn added, “They’re in- nocent and they don’t really understand. They don’t really understand the concept of life, they just think everything’s nice and pretty and colorful and great. But in high school and middle school, you’re in reality and have so much more pressure. In elementary, they’re easy on you, you don’t have much homework. You aren’t that stressed out. Mid- dle and high school, it’s more stressful, especially because there’s people judging you. People judge you a lot.” As the discussion moved on, Evelyn later clarified her comments. “In middle school, you feel like you’re getting judged a lot just because you’re trying to fit in and change. Especially moving from middle school to elementary. In elementary, you don’t really care what oth- er people think about you. But in middle school, you’re kind of looking around at people and especially high schoolers. You see that they’re more ma- ture, so you try to change into that. But you’re scared that people are going to judge you and leave you because you’re changing and stuff.” JJ asked if students were more judgmental in middle school. “I feel it’s more judgmental,” Evelyn said. “I feel like most of the girls try and be perfect and stuff and they want to fit in. ‘Cause in middle school you want to fit in because you’re new to it. But in high school, it’s kind of like, ‘Eh, who cares at this point.’” JJ asked Mason if he had something to add. “I feel like the older you get, the bigger the change gets between things,” said Mason. “Like your opinions. There’s a really big change. There’s a lot of stuff going on with, like politics and stuff, that some people are really interested in and some people really aren’t. And there’s a really big change going on.” JJ looked to clarify the com- ment. “So what you’re saying is that as you get old, you’re exposed to more things in life, and you start developing opin- ions from experiences in life, really. Would you say that re- sults in a higher stress level? “ “Sometimes,” Mason said. “Why would that make you feel, not unsafe, but not emo- tionally supported?” asked JJ. Mason replied, “‘Cause some people kind of feel like their opinion is the one that they need to stick to.” At that point, the discussion moved toward trust between staff and students. “I think that trust ties into the emotional stability of stu- dents,” JJ said. “Not stability but meeting emotional needs. You have to have a relation- ship with the staff member for you to feel emotionally stable or safe.” Kiana shared her point of view. “There used to be staff members that students felt comfortable with, but now there’s a bunch of new staff members. So it’s going to take time for the kids to get com- fortable with them. I mean, there’s a few that have been here for a couple of years. But even at that, there’s still no built up trust between them. We don’t really know them personally, either.” She said she felt frustrated, adding, “I don’t know what I was trying to say with that.” “You were just trying to say, new staff members means a new buildup of trust. It’s hard- er to trust new people,” JJ said. As moderator, JJ said he felt that the students hadn’t really answered the question directly despite the discussion thus far, so he read it again. “We didn’t talk about how we can fix it,” Kiana pointed out. Landon said, “We could train teachers to be more un- derstanding, I guess.” Kiana then spoke about mandatory reporting of inci- dents, and how sometimes a small issue could be “blown out of proportion” during some incidences while, at oth- er times, more pressing issues were sometimes downplayed. “I think that this not only contributes to the safety of the school,” Kiana said. “From my personal experiences, when you go to the staff about an issue that you’re having with — let’s just say other stu- dents— nothing really gets done. It’s kind of like a slap on the wrist, ‘Oh, they’ll do better next time.’ They give them multiple chances, but it’s never really fixed. I feel like that’s what causes some kids to not feel safe at the school and might feel pressured and not emotionally comfortable in the school.” JJ respectfully asked, “What do you mean by problems? Like, when you go up to a staff member and tell them a prob- lem, do you mean bullying?” “For the most part, bully- ing,” Kiana said. “Mapleton isn’t really known as the bul- lying school, because nobody really says anything about it. But I know that there is bul- lying happening because ev- erybody knows that if you go to the staff about it, nothing is going to happen. So then people try and stop it within themselves.” “And it gets worse,” Landon added. “And you get in trouble for stopping the situation,” Kiana said. “Yeah, and it’s like if the school’s not going to do any- thing about it then …” Landon said, trailing off. JJ looked at Mason. “Mason, you gotta talk, man. What do you think about bullying?” JJ asked. After a pause, Mason sim- ply said, “It sucks.” JJ tried to get him to open up more, asking him to ex- plain more. “There’s more stuff going on between people, like fam- ily member issues or some- thing going on outside,” Ma- son said. “They’re bringing it in and being mean to people to make them feel better.” JJ nodded. “So you think kids take their life outside of school and bring it into school, and then take it out on other kids.” Mason nodded his head. “Okay, I get what you’re saying,” JJ said. At that point, the students took a break to move onto the next topic — an in-depth conversation about academ- ics. In this Saturday’s edition (Feb. 29) of the Siuslaw News, the students will voice their thoughts on student/teacher relations, and how each one is responsible for making learn- ing successful at the Mapleton School District. Burns’s Riverside Chapel Florence Funeral Home Creating a Loving Tribute Support youth at Feb. 29 education expo More than 85 organi- zations will be on hand to showcase their educa- tional opportunities at the Siuslaw Education Expo, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 29. The entire community is invited to learn more about the many organizations in the area that offer educa- tional services to people of all ages in the region. The Expo will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Siuslaw High School, 2975 Oak St. in Florence. This event, the first of its kind in the area, will include organizations ranging geo- graphically from Dunes City to Florence to Maple- ton and beyond. The doors will open at Siuslaw High School at 10 a.m. on Feb. 29 with dis- plays in the main gymna- sium, the commons (lunch area) and the library. For more info about the expo, visit https://bit. ly/siuslaweducationexpo or facebook.com/siuslaw expo. 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