Being a school counselor often demands more than addressing academics, career goals and the personal lives of students, said Kelli Aiken.
School counselors often also have to deal with the effects of what is going on in kids’ lives when they’re not at school.
“We’re putting Band-Aids on some really big wounds,” said Aiken, a counselor at Lakes Magnet Middle School in Coeur d’Alene.
Those Band-Aids are temporary solutions to a wide range of adversities children face, which if left unchecked, could negatively affect them throughout their lives. Aiken and other North Idaho professionals who work with children have found hope in the form of a scientific study and a former Walla Walla, Wash., principal who used that study to turn around a crumbling high school.
“A bigger hammer”
Children don’t walk around with signs hanging around their necks stating things like “My dad went to jail last night,” or “My parents are using meth.” Aiken has a mental checklist of things she considers when attempting to determine what could be the driving force behind a child’s disciplinary issues at school: Lack of food, inadequate clothing, poor health care, fighting parents, a death in the family.
[For more of this story, written by Keith Cousins, go to http://www.cdapress.com/news/l...76-956cda8781d3.html]
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