CASC Conference 2018: Think Before You Click: Jordan’s Law & Cyberbullying Education

The professional development growth opportunity I’d like to focus on is a session I attended at the CASC Conference on Thursday, October 18, 2018, called Think Before You Click: Jordan’s Law & Cyberbullying Education. This session was led by Ila Laguercia, a School Counselor at Simi Valley High School, and Ed Peisner, the founder of The Organization for Social Media Safety. Ed created this organization after his son was assaulted, and the attack was recorded by multiple bystanders and uploaded to social media by a friend of the attacker.

Having previously worked in social media marketing, I am very aware of how manipulative various online platforms can be and the negative effect they can have on users. Though my work was more focused on paid marketing through Facebook and Instagram, during my time researching best practices and strategies for effectively marketing, I often stumbled upon articles linking social media to depression and anxiety. My understanding of the effect that social media can have on people was compounded by my experience at my practicum site last year, where several students were bullied through an Instagram account in which students submitted gossip and secrets through private messages, all to be shared publicly through posts and stories. I realized that if kids were already experiencing this in sixth grade, it was worse than I even thought, and this presentation confirmed that.

Here are some key stats from the presentation:

• 90% of people 18 to 29 years old have at least one social media account
• 88% of social media-using teens have witnessed other people being mean or cruel on social media
• 34% of the students report experiencing cyberbullying during their lifetime
• Teens using social media more than 5 hours a day are 70% more likely to have suicidal thoughts or actions than those who report 1 hour of daily use
• Teens using social media every day are 14% more likely to be depressed than those who used social media less frequently
• 20% of kids cyberbullied think about suicide, and 10% attempt it

In addition to sharing his experiences, Ed also told us a bit about Jordan’s Law, which was inspired by his son. Jordan’s Law, California AB 1542, makes it so that anyone who conspires with an attacker to film a violent crime will be considered an accomplice and subject to an enhanced sentence.

There are a few different things that we, as school counselors, can do to help when it comes to cyberbullying. First, it’s important that we keep staff informed about the various laws and school policies around cyberbullying. Education Code 48900, for example, states that schools can suspend or expel students for participating in an act of bullying, which includes cyberbullying. We should also be communicating this information with parents, so they’re aware of the way in which adolescents and teens are using social media, how they can play in an important role in the prevention of cyberbullying, and the laws and policies around this behavior.

Finally, we need to inform our students of the data and laws surrounding cyberbullying, as that can help them understand its severity. In addition, some general tips for our students include:

• Not joining in on the bullying
• Supporting the victim by showing kindness and concern
• “If you see something, say something”
• Tell a trusted adult
• Report inappropriate posts or cyberbullying on social media
• Block (or hide) the bully on social media
• Be an upstander, as opposed to a bystander

Whether we choose to present this information ourselves or bring in an outside organization, it’s important that we share the detrimental effect that social media and cyberbullying can have on our students.

All of these strategies can be implemented and tracked in various settings, and effectiveness can be measured by monitoring CHKS data, pre- and post-surveys, and referrals/disciplinary actions as a result of cyberbullying. I plan to incorporate my newfound knowledge from this presentation into my work as a school counselor, as this is becoming a significant issue that’s only increasing with time. I’d like to also look at our existing CHKS data to see how much this is currently affecting high school students in my district, and then go from there to determine next steps. Overall, this was an incredibly insightful professional development growth opportunity that I plan to carry through this year and beyond.

National Conflict Resolution Center: Restorative Practices

I attended a 2-day Restorative Practice training at the National Conflict Resolution Center in South East San Diego-- the community I grew up in. Reginald Washington, the CEO of Project Aware led the training alongside his support staff at the center. Other parties involved were the County of Probation-- correctional and probation officers from throughout San Diego County as well as community mentors with lived-experiences. Both parties were in the process of implementing Restorative Practices in the work they do with opportunity youth and other community members.

I chose this particular growth opportunity because after being introduced to Restorative Practices in our program, I began to see it being implemented on-site within the Sweetwater Union High School District. I participated in a restorative circle that took place in a classroom at Palomar High School where I was a substitute teacher. After participating in this circle and seeing how positive the students responded to it, it sparked an interest in me to gain more knowledge and skills on how I can implement this practice with my students and their families.

This experience provided hands-on opportunities for participants to practice allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and utilizing a circle to facilitate deep conversations about our hardships, experiences and what meaning that created for our own lives.

Social Discipline Window

The social discipline window provides a framework for understanding the spectrum of control and support and what impact they have on our own lived experiences. The restorative approach incorporates high levels of control which includes setting boundaries and setting high expectations while also providing high levels of support and encouragement. 

Restorative practices can be used at all age, gender, grade levels and can be used to facilitate conversations about a wide range of issues from conflict mediation to processing and create meaning to some of our most challenging experiences. As a school counselor, this practice can be implemented to solve conflict between students, families and staff and can also structure how we run small groups or core curriculum lessons. Not only can Restorative Practices be implemented in the school setting but it can also be utilized in prisons, juvenile hall and other counseling settings as a therapeutic process to healing. This practice aligns with Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory as it takes into account the macro, mezzo and micro factors that may be impacting a student, family or community. Restorative Practices utilizes a strength-based framework and a holistic lens which can help foster positive relationships when working with participants.

I plan on utilizing this practice as a school counselor with students and families within the school setting. Restorative practices can be implemented with narrative counseling strategies as we provide the space for students and families to share their stories in ways that are meaningful to them. I also hope to incorporate this practice into the way I facilitate small groups and core curriculum lessons. This practice can also be implemented into the ways in which we live our daily lives. I believe the most important part of our role as a school counselor is building strong and positive relationships with staff, students, families and community members. Through relationship building, restorative practices and narrative therapeutic processes, we can restore and heal relationships with our students, their families and even within our own lives.

Katherine Phillips

San Diego State University

Time to THRIVE: Promoting Safety, Inclusion, & Well-Being for LGBTQ Students

Event:  CASC Conference 2018

Presentation Title: Promoting Safety, Inclusion, and Well-Being for LGBTQ Students

Presenter: Vincent Pompei, Ed.D - Director, Youth Well-Being Project

Presentation Date: Friday, October 19th, 2018

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The session I attended covered how school counselors can support LGBTQ students and strategies we can use to create and foster a school culture that is safe and inclusive for them. I decided to participate in this because we do not discuss this group very much in our program and I wanted to learn how to better support my students. In addition, I have looked at data and have learned that a large percentage of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, face higher rates of bullying and harassment, and higher rates of attempting and completing suicide. I wanted to equip myself with knowledge about best practices for ensuring their protection and build upon my current skills to work towards transforming our schools to be inclusive of our LGBTQ students.
We covered best practices for legal and ethical protections of our LGBTQ students that I was not very aware of. With this knowledge, I feel I am better able to advocate for things such as single user restrooms (AB 1732), their ability to change their name on unofficial records (AB 1266), and for policies around anti-bullying to be inclusive to LGBTQ students (Seth’s Law: AB 9). In addition, we discussed the importance of counselors working with students and being visible and vocal allies, especially since data has shown that from 12,000 LGBTQ youth surveyed, only 15% felt comfortable talking to their counselors about their identity.

Calling Upon the Warrior Spirit to Heal Historical Trauma Conference and Ceremony

I attended the Calling Upon the Warrior Spirit to Heal Historical Trauma Conference and Ceremony. This conference was held October 8^ththrough 10^th, although I only attended the 8^thand first half of the 9^th. The Viejas Band Tribal Government of the Kumeyaay Native American tribe hosted the event at the Viejas Resort and Casino in Alpine California. In addition to them the conference was sponsored by the Barona Band of Mission Indians, Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, Morongo band of Mission Indians, IPAI, Pala band of Mission Indians, Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians and San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Across the three days there was a great number of presenters and speakers.

As a member of the Native American and Indigenous Scholars Collaborative Project (NAISCP) we choose to attend this conference to seek additional knowledge and support in how to best address the concerns of historical trauma that we see manifesting with our native students. The conference and ceremony aimed to focus on the Indigenous perspective on how to holistically address historical trauma and develop specific goals and plans on how to do so.

The particular counseling intervention that was guiding the conference was addressing historical trauma through storytelling. Although there was not a specific session that told participants storytelling is counseling technique to use, instead it was the tool that each presenter used to demonstrate the power of storytelling in healing. For example, there was a panel of both elders and youth who told short versions of their own personal stories that included both the effects of trauma on their lives but also their inner resilience and stories of how they overcame their personal trials and tribulations. Many of the speakers did something of the same, telling their story while also exploring how historical trauma influences the community overall.

The technique of storytelling can be used with any population of students; however, it is particularly powerful for those who have suffered great trauma. As part of the NAISCP we use this counseling technique with both ourselves and our students. It can be adjusted and implemented with almost any age group. For adults, more depth and detail and therefore time can be used to truly explore a person’s story and allow them to share all the influential parts of their journey. With children the tool can be adapted to be more prompting and interactive but still with the underlying purpose of allowing the students to tell their stories. We use this technique with ourselves and students over the course of entire year, always allowing time for adding editing and reinterpretation. 

Storytelling as a technique can absolutely be replicated in any setting. All that is required is the time and attention to listen and hear a person’s story and insights on their life and allow someone to share. Although this technique may not be specifically evidence-based we have found incredible success and impact with in our groups as part of NAISCP, and also in this conference. With Native American students recognizing that their unique stories greatly impact their ability to succeed in school allows us to work with them to recognize their resilience and strengths in the face of current and historical trauma.

The use of storytelling can be linked to the well-known technique of Narrative Counseling in schools in which a counselor also explores the narrative a student shares and in addition works with them to explore strengths heard in the narratives. This is similar to what we explored in this conference of finding the resilience in the stories of historical trauma.

Marisa Leone