A Chance to Speak Up, Be Heard

Two months after an Orange teenager was beaten by schoolmates so severely that he was hospitalized, Portola Middle School is inviting its students to meet on campus today--a Saturday, no less--to figure out how they can change their school.

“If change is going to be made, you have to go to the people who can make the changes,” said Portola’s new Principal Carolyn Reichert. “If kids are not tuned in, it’s just not going to happen.”

Students will meet for three hours in the morning and present their ideas to parents and teachers shortly after. Everything will be on the table, from ways to prevent bullying to more school dances to changing the physical education schedule.

The principal said the school may not be able to deliver on all ideas, but each will be taken seriously.

Reichert, a 25-year veteran educator, suggested the forum shortly after the Oct. 5 incident that landed Jeremy Worden, 14, at UCI Medical Center’s intensive care unit with a bruised spleen.

Three students allegedly pummeled Jeremy as part of an apparent birthday hazing ritual. They were arrested on suspicion of assault and suspended from the school. Two of them were officially expelled from the district by the board of trustees Thursday. The third alleged attacker is awaiting an expulsion hearing in front of the board. Charges are pending, according to the district attorney’s office.

Portola students say their school’s reputation took a beating too, with some parents in the working-class community afraid to send their kids to the campus.

Erick Valencia, a sixth-grader, said a friend’s parents recently decided against having their daughter attend Portola.

“Her mother said she didn’t like the school because of the birthday beating,” Erick said.

Erick, 11, is among 16 students handpicked by teachers and fellow schoolmates to organize today’s meeting. They are the young opinion-makers in the school of 880 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

A handful of them gathered one recent morning to discuss Jeremy’s beating and the mood at the school. They said the violent birthday hazing was an aberration in an otherwise safe campus with its share of pre-pubescent conflicts and traditions.

“The eighth-graders make fun of us,” said Erick, complaining that upperclassmen sometimes taunt their younger schoolmates. “We tell them you were there once and they get quiet.”

The students said kids celebrating birthdays did get light punches to their arms, a custom that school administrators have cracked down on since Jeremy’s beating, but it should not have escalated to the point it did Oct. 5.

“I was angry about it,” said Brian Williams, 13, an eighth-grader who is friends with Jeremy. “At first I wanted to get the kids who did it, but two wrongs don’t make a right.”

“Maybe they were mad at something else,” offered Kris Poole, 13, Brian’s friend and teammate on the school’s football team. “They had all this anger they held inside and they took it too far.”

It is that type of introspection and reflection that Principal Reichert hopes will be evident in the student forum.

“I want them to expand their horizons,” she said. “We want to hear all ideas; it doesn’t matter what they come up with. Some of them may not even be logical or reasonable, but we need to hear them.”

Two members of the Future Search Network of Orange County will help moderate the forum. The 5-year-old group of volunteers helps conduct similar forums at local organizations and neighborhoods where members openly discuss issues that affect them. Portola is the first school to be visited by the group.

Priscilla Monserrate-Sanders, one of today’s moderators, said that “when given the opportunity to participate in important discussions, children tend to be honest in looking at themselves. . . .”

Principal Reichert, a member of the network, suggested the forum to teachers and students when she was hired this semester.

“The kids are very concerned about the public perception of the school since the beating,” she said. “When kids feel that they have a good school, they give better effort in academics.”

The students said they welcome the opportunity to be heard by teachers and school administrators.

“It makes you think that they are actually trying to listen,” Brian said. “They want to know what you want . . . “

” . . . Not just what they want,” Kris completed.

One preliminary idea suggested by the students is to have a “Buddy Day” where older and younger students have an opportunity to interact. They would also like to form a student patrol in charge of reporting bullying incidents or other illegal activities to school administrators.

Robyn Worden, Jeremy’s mother, said she is looking forward to hearing what the students have to say. Her son is still unable to do strenuous activities, she said, and is being schooled at home. He is expected to return to Portola in February.

“That’s how you learn what is going on in the school,” she said from her home. Had there been such a forum before, “my Jeremy might have been able to speak up.”