Half-Time Help Not Enough For Kids Heading Wrong Way

Sat., April 25, 1998

Kathryn Hinds Special To Opinion

I have been an elementary school teacher for 10 years. I have a master’s degree in education administration and have served on many committees within the Central Valley School District. I currently teach a program called SPACE - Student, Parent, Alternative Classroom Experience. Parents work with me in the classroom on a daily basis.

Please know this - I love my job. I love working with children, parents and the community. More importantly, I am deeply concerned about the resources available in the elementary schools.

Citizens everywhere are concerned about the issues of safety and youth violence. Our school district, like so many others, has had to hire staff and spend money on security to ensure our secondary schools remain safe places for students. Even though these things are needed in the junior high and high schools, I constantly wonder why Washington schools continue to put Band-aids on the problem. When do we get to work on the prevention of violence?

The school that I work in, South Pines Elementary, has 439 children and only one half-time counselor! We also do not have an assistant principal. Yet our teachers can tell you which children need help and which students are most prone to gravitate toward gang/drug activity in junior high. We can accurately predict the problems that upper level schools will have five to 10 years in advance. As elementary teachers, principals, and counselors, we do everything in our power to help these children and families, but our resources are not sufficient.

I believe children will be able to make good choices when given the proper guidance. When children don’t receive the guidance at home, they look for it at school. Right now in Washington state elementary schools, children can only receive that valuable guidance on a half-time basis.

I believe that elementary schools need to have full-time counselors available five days a week! I do not wish to take any resources away from the mid- and upper-level schools. But we have a golden opportunity to improve the future of Washington. We know that violence starts at the elementary level, and we need your help!

Please, taxpayers, citizens and legislators, consider prevention of violence by funding full-time counselors for elementary schools in Washington state.

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