ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606090003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
The student had talked about suicide, then disappeared from school.
When the teen-ager finally came back to Christiansburg High School, guidance counselor Sally Bohland wasted no time in sitting down to talk.
By lunch the following day, the student had dropped by twice, just to check in and talk. Bohland had already called the teen-ager's parents, several times.
Over at Riner Elementary School, Karen Jones' morning was a bit more orderly. She talked to a fourth-grade class about conflict resolution, encouraged a parent volunteer to continue tutoring some fifth-graders in reading, and had lunch with a few third-graders - just for fun.
The morning illustrates the difference in counseling techniques at different ages. But it's all part of the ever-expanding responsibilities placed on today's guidance counselors.
Many counselors say they are increasingly filling in where parents fail to teach basic life skills such as developing self-esteem or behaving properly.
Some parents say that's exactly what they're worried about.
"If I teach my child a certain set of values that maybe doesn't jibe with the counselor, who does the child listen to? What if the counselor tells my child another thing? Then [the counselor] conflicts with my right as a parent," said Barry Worth, a parent of a sixth-grader and vice chairman of the Montgomery County School Board.
This month, the School Board will decide between two different guidance policies: "Opt-out," the present policy which allows parents to pull students from any type of counseling; or "opt-in," where no student would be allowed guidance services unless they have written permission from the parent.
Earlier this year, Gov. George Allen and Republican state legislators tried unsuccessfully to mandate the "opt-in" policy. The General Assembly rejected that proposal, but did pass a compromise resolution giving each local school system a July 1 deadline to choose either policy.
The Radford and Giles County school boards already have agreed to keep the "opt-out" policy.
To Worth, and the parents who have called him about this, counseling services are no different than any extracurricular activity.
"I sign a form that says my child can play basketball or soccer or football, why can't I sign another form if I want my child seeing a counselor?" he said.
With the "opt-in" provision, some emergency situations would warrant counselor involvement regardless of whether the parent has given permission.
But often, as in the case of the student who threatened suicide, the most important visits come after the crisis has calmed down. Those moments, Bohland said, are golden opportunities to reach a student who would be lost otherwise.
"If you're a kid who finally built up enough guts to approach a counselor, and I say you can't come back unless you have this signature - that's one more rejection to that kid," Bohland said.
Crisis management
Where once guidance counselors spent most of their time scheduling classes and preparing students for a future college or career, now that's a portion of their work.
Posters hung in the Christiansburg guidance office offer a clue into the diverse duties of a counselor. Taped to one of the office doors is a schedule for SAT test taking times and a notice about paid carpentry internships. Down the hall, near the college information books, hangs a poster about AIDS. Nearby, the number for RAFT, the emergency crisis line, is highlighted.
The three and a half counselors (Lila Lorton worked part time until her retirement this week) also try to keep the drop-out rate in check, often making home visits to encourage kids to return to school. Counselors serve as a liaison between teacher and student if a conflict arises. Bohland works with each of the 100 or so special education students in the school.
Counselors talk to parents as well. The morning after the suicide case, Bohland passed along want-ads she had saved to a student whose father recently lost his job. Each week, she touches base with both the father and the student.
Bohland says she always asks a student first if it's OK to talk with a parent, unless it's an emergency, in which case she always calls. If the problem is severe or long term, Bohland will refer the student's family to a list of therapists.
A substance-abuse counselor comes in weekly to run an alcohol and drug abuse group. Someone from the Women's Resource Center also comes to talk with girls who have been abused. Parents are always notified of these types of group counseling, Bohland said.
In her 14 years as a counselor, Bohland said she's had perhaps three parents who have opted-out of any type of counseling programing. Just a handful have chosen to pull their kids from the family life classes (otherwise known as sex education).
Most parents, she said, are actively involved with their children and would want them to see the guidance counselor if there is a problem. But as busy as parents are, she said, it's often difficult to get even field trip permission slips back to school.
Worth, who has opted to pull his daughter from some of the family life classes taught each year, said parents have called him concerned about counselor methods. He has heard tales of counselors who use transcendental meditation, yoga, "just about anything you can imagine, I've heard," he said.
"The administration tells me that isn't true. But it's the perception, and people believe in that."
Bohland said the only counseling that goes on is simply listening to students.
"There shouldn't be any fear," Bohland said. "We aren't doing any weird counseling stuff here."
Wise choices
That fear of the unknown might be even more prevalent at the elementary school level, where the concept of guidance counselors for primary grades was unheard of until it became a state requirement seven years ago.
Games, books and videos fill the shelves of Jones' office at Riner Elementary, with titles like "Mind Your Manners" and "Too Smart for Trouble." The purpose, she said, is not to teach values, but how to make good choices in life and be accountable for those choices.
Jones, a former kindergarten teacher, visits with each class in the school once a week. She teaches lessons on careers and why it's important to stay in school, how to handle anger, what to do about peer pressure. Much of her time is spent reviewing basic life skills that are sometimes overlooked at home.
"Often, parents don't have time to talk with kids anymore. That's part of my job," she said.
The children can ask to see Jones; usually three or four visit each day. Often, the trouble lies with friendships, sometimes with a worry about school, occasionally a problem at home.
She also organizes group meetings, like a divorce group or a study skills group, based on the need. As in middle and high school, parents are always notified.
The purpose is to let kids know they're not alone.
With the divorce group, for example, "We don't get into why it's happened, or anything personal like that. We stick to how we can cope with the change," Jones said.
The School Board is scheduled to discuss the "opt-in" and "opt-out" options at its June 18 meeting.
"I think I'll probably be in the minority," Worth said of the meeting, "but I'm going to ask a lot of questions."
LENGTH: Long : 137 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. Riner Elementary guidance counselorby CNBKaren Jones conducts a session for students on how to resolve
conflicts. color. 2. Sally Bohland is guidance counselor at
Christiansburg High School.