BUILDING A COMMUNITY— Oak Park High School counselors have created several programs to help students navigate through life. From left: Jeff Appell, Janet Sboboda, Julie Heeney, Debi Fries and Randy McLelland. STEPHANIE BERTHOLDOAcorn Newspapers Three programs at Oak Park High School won the admiration of students this year.

The Safe School Ambassadors, Life Skills and Peer Counseling programs helped Oak Park students develop into well-rounded citizens.

Safe School Ambassadors

The goal of the Safe School Ambassadors program is to stop bullying before it starts. The program has been operating at the campus (and also at Medea Creek Middle School) since 2008, said Randy McLelland, a counselor and the head of the program at Oak Park High School.

McLelland credited late school board member Marie Panec with being the driving force behind the anti-bullying program. Administrators were quick to embrace Panec’s idea as a proactive measure because bullying had become a pervasive problem on school campuses throughout the nation.

Student involvement in the program has grown. McLelland said 60 students have been chosen as Safe School Ambassadors to represent various social cliques on campus.

“The intent is that they will be influential with their immediate peer groups from the inside,” McLelland said. “We’ve have had some very gifted future filmmakers in the program the last few years, and they have made some very compelling videos.”

The anti-violence prevention and cyberbullying films have been shown to students in all grade levels and posted on YouTube. The films are being used by the sheriff’s department in Internet safety presentations.

“(Students) are also working on a video about homophobia that should be completed by the end of the year,” McLelland said.

The Safe School Ambassadors program operates with 10 teachers, who each meet biweekly with a group of 10 to 12 students. The teachers show students intervention techniques, which the students then put into practice.

“Safe School Ambassadors is what’s known as an ‘inside out’ program,” McLelland said. “In other words, rather than conduct assemblies and make classroom presentations . . . our ambassadors do their work anonymously without recognition or fanfare. They attempt to influence their peers’ behavior by using their status as trusted friends, not because of membership in a program.

Peer Counseling

The Peer Counseling program, on the other hand, is an “outside in” program that publicizes the positive values of the school community.

Counselor Debi Fries is the co-adviser of the Peer Counseling group with Janet Svoboda.

“Peer counselors are regular students just like everybody else at OPHS, but we have trained and dedicated ourselves to helping others and are committed to doing so,” Fries said.

Students must undergo training to become a member of the Peer Counseling group. Fries called the initial training, Beginning Peer Counseling, the “gateway into helping others.”

The training helps students develop skills and techniques for problem solving and peer mediation, and also gives students a sense of trust in their own abilities, she said.

Advanced Peer Counseling teaches students to help their peers deal with difficult problems in an emotionally supportive environment.

Advanced peer counselors are taught by members of the Anti- Defamation League.

An event called Acceptance Week is “dedicated to fostering awareness, opening hearts and minds while creating a culture of respect and acceptance,” Fries said.

Oak Park High has been designated a “No Place For Hate” school by the ADL for five years, Fries said. The school program has become so successful that Oak Park students are invited to share their experience and expertise in schools throughout Santa Barbara County.

Life Skills

The Life Skills program at Oak Park High has blossomed over the past 11 years under the guidance of teacher Jeff Appell, known around campus as Doc Appell.

The Life Skills class is a graduation requirement for seniors. While the four-day Life Skills retreat is not mandatory, students look forward to the getaway. Appell said up to 90 percent of all students voluntarily attend the retreat.

Retreat activities help students study the relationships and events that are most meaningful in their lives.

“By studying these relationships and events, students can be reminded of the importance of their own self-esteem and the importance of the friends and family in their lives,” Appell said.

The program is modeled after “Kairos,” a Catholic school program that started in the 1960s, Appell said.

“ I took the program from Chaminade High School and took the religious aspect out of it and made it appropriate for public high school.” he said.

“The retreat is an opportunity for students to spend some special time away from the pressures of everyday life, and it gives them the opportunity to study their lives in a safe and supportive environment,” Appell said.