High Schoolers Train as Peer Counselors
Armed with messages against drugs and gangs, scores of Cleveland High School youths have set out to counsel their younger counterparts at neighboring elementary and junior high schools.
About 120 Cleveland students volunteered to be peer counselors and began their training Thursday, Principal Ann Mitchell said.
In three weeks, the teen-agers will head out to the seven campuses that feed into Cleveland, as well as to a nearby high school for special education students.
Mitchell said the young counselors will visit classrooms and speak on four themes: drug abuse prevention, alcohol and tobacco prevention, violence prevention and school dropout prevention.
“Each (volunteer) got to select which school they want to go to,” Mitchell said, adding that some of the students are returning to the lower-grade schools they once attended.
The Cleveland students will pair up to visit classrooms at least four times a semester at Northridge and Sutter middle schools; Winnetka, Melvin Avenue, Cantara Street, Blythe Street and Napa Street elementary schools; and Miller High, a special education school.
Local anti-drug organizations such as El Proyecto del Barrio and the San Fernando Valley Partnership will help teach the Cleveland students how to talk to younger kids about drugs and gangs.
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