Safety measures being put in place

This is in response to Keren Stainfeld's letter encouraging Oak Park Unified School District to take steps to curtail campus bullying in order to prevent an incident such as the one in Oxnard from occurring in our community.

Given our societal culture of guns and violence which seems to be enhanced by a current fixation with meanness, no community will be immune to the possibility of such a tragedy. However, OPUSD is taking proactive steps to teach and engender in our students respect and civility for each other and within the greater community.

Amongst other things OPUSD

•Employs a fulltime elementary school who has developed antibullying programs for our students and focuses on encouraging a culture of acceptance.

•Requires all school sites to have an ageappropriate community service plan in place to encourage selfrespect and a culture of giving-back to the community.

•Has expanded the high school peer counseling program to include training on conflict mediation for advanced peer counselors.

•Employs a school psychologist to meet with students in crisis.

•Has a high school counselor dedicated to working with students at-risk.

•Works with outside tolerance agencies such as the AntiDefamation League and the Museum of Tolerance to train our peer counselors and to work with and counsel troubled youth.

•Devoted one week at the high school this past fall focusing on tolerance and what that means on an individual level.

•Has contracted with a nationally recognized education group to train a cadre of students at the high school and middle school in attacking and preventing bullying where and as it occurs.

The OPUSD Board has voted to place on the ballot in June a renewal of our community parcel tax. Given our declining enrollment and the current proposed state budget cuts to education, it is imperative that every voter in our community come out and vote yes so that we can renew the parcel tax and try to keep as many of these absolutely vital programs as we can. Marie Panec OPUSD Board Member