Trustees Allow Counselors to Return for Now

Bowing to arguments from parents and teachers that counseling for drug, alcohol and emotional problems is essential in schools, trustees of the Orange Unified School District on Thursday night agreed to let school counselors return temporarily to the district’s campuses.

This fall, Orange district officials dropped contracts with three nonprofit agencies that provide the counselors at 30 of the district’s 37 schools, following the board’s philosophy that parents and not schools should deal with adolescents’ substance abuse and emotional problems.

But school board members on Thursday said they do want children to receive help, but were concerned about having no oversight of the counseling.

“There’s a bit of a [feeling] that the board doesn’t want kids to get help, and that’s just not true,” said trustee Bill Lewis. “We don’t want school-based clinics . . . We’re trying to find a compromise for helping children without realizing some of our worst fears of pushing parents out of the way.”

A number of parents and counselors told the board Thursday that the programs are essential.

A health clerk at Canyon High School said that during the eight weeks that the school has been without counselors, she has been frustrated trying to cope with adolescent crises.

“I have seen a lot of students with drug and alcohol problems, and I have no one to refer them to,” Laura Hankins said. “I’ve had students come to school high and addicted, and when I’ve had a counselor right there, it’s been very helpful.”

For six years, Mariposa Women’s Center, Straight Talk and Turning Point for Families have been sending sending graduate students training for masters degrees into the district’s schools, counseling 275 to 325 students per month. The state has spent about $54,000 per year for the programs, which are free to the district.

In deciding to drop the contracts, administrators cited the policy passed by the politically conservative majority of the school board to allow only programs that were strictly related to academics.

With only so many hours in the teaching day, the schools simply did not have the time or the responsibility to take on the personal problems of their students, explained Trustee Bill Lewis had argued. Other board members consistently have held to the view that such counseling is best done in the privacy of the home.

Students, teachers and counselors rebelled, demanding more consideration of the issue. On Thursday night, one parent told the school board, “My son was the recipient of counseling at the La Veta school last year. He was sliding with his grades and having trouble with his peers. I am absolutely certain if he had not received the intervention, he would be failing today and would be subject to suicide or drug addiction or a multitude of ills.”

Thursday night’s vote reinstates the counseling programs for 90 days. During that time, administrators are instructed to devise a way to ensure internal supervision of the counseling. Currently, the counselors are supervised by their agencies.

After 90 days, the school board will vote on the supervision plan.

“There seems to be a consensus among us that the people who are available to work with the students are acceptable to us,” said Trustee Robert Viviano. “Let’s get on with it and help the children.”