Published: May 08, 2008 10:05 am         

Parent attends Mineral student behaviors event

KEYSER, W.Va. - An obviously disheartened group of educators vowed not to give up on the children of Mineral County Wednesday, as they faced an almost empty room at Keyser High School.

The occasion had been billed as a "Community Meeting on Student Behaviors," and the ultimate purpose was to share the results of the PRIDE survey with parents, grandparents, students and other persons interested in the welfare of the children of the county.

Completed by the students themselves, the PRIDE surveys include their anonymous answers to questions about behaviors such as smoking, drinking, sexual activity, bullying and school safety.

Each school receives the results of the surveys taken by its own students, and Keyser Primary-Middle School principal John Campbell and Keyser High School principal Charles Wimer were both prepared Wednesday evening to present the eye-opening data to the public.

In addition, school nurses Nancy Starcher and Trina Melody were prepared to talk about the symptoms of a drug user, as well as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), attendance director Linda Marsh was prepared to speak about student behaviors and how it affects truancy, and Dr. Tom Denne, director of psychological services, was prepared to discuss why students choose risky behaviors and to offer tips to parents attempting to cope with the issues.

Deputy Craig Fraley, the school resource officer at KHS, had a display of drug paraphernalia and a wide variety of informational brochures.

In addition to the speakers and a few other school system officials, however, the audience only consisted of one student, one parent and one grandparent.

And the grandparent happened to be the president of the board of education.

It was a similar turnout, Superintendent Skip Hackworth said, to the Frankfort District meeting held April 30 at FHS.

"I don't know whether I'm disgusted, disappointed, upset, or what," he said.

"We felt, as a school system, that it was our job to give this information to the community."

"We've got some serious problems in this county, but I just don't know how we communicate this to the public," he said.

Board member Bob Shook noted that the community is "sticking its head in the sand" when it comes to destructive behaviors of the students.

"This is just awful," he said of the apparent apathy.

Campbell noted that a message announcing the meting had been placed on the KPMS automatic phone calling system.

"We made 1,200 calls," he said, to which KHS parent coordinator Georgie Biser added, "We made 800."

Starcher told the educators that, when she speaks with a lot of students who are involved in drugs, or drinking, or who are sexually active, she would ask them how their parents feel about their activities.

"They say they don't know how their parents feel because (their parents' reaction) is always reactive, never proactive," she said.

The group agreed that parents need to keep the lines of communication open between themselves and their children, and to set guidelines and boundaries for their behaviors.

"You've got to be there for them and stay on them, and behind them and beside them," Melody said.

"One thing we got out of the survey is that they always say they were drinking at someone else's house," Hackworth noted.

"It's never their house; it's always someone else's house."

Although several of the educators were clearly at a loss as to how to open a line of communication between the school system and the parents, a few did offer some suggestions.

One possibility was to offer incentives - such as free gas or points on their children's grades - to get parents to attend future community meetings.

Another possibility included offering little mini-messages on the issues right before ballgames or during half-time.

Whatever the solution might be, Shook said he refused to give up.

"We can't stop trying," he said. "We just can't fail our kids."

Contact Liz Beavers at lizbeavers@yahoo.com.