6th Grade Milestones Reports

Milestone Score Reports for 6th grade students were distributed today. If your student did not receive a report, and attended a Cobb elementary school, please send an email to christopher.deane@cobbk12.org.  I will reach out to the previous school to see if the report is still there.  Students from outside of Cobb should contact the previous school to see if reports have been received.  Last year score reports from previous schools arrived as late as November.  All reports will be forwarded to students as we receive them.

Milestones Score Reports

Milestone Score Reports from the spring administration were distributed to 7th and 8th grade students today.  6th grade reports will be provided once all of them are received from the elementary feeder schools.

Magnet Assembly - Save the Date

Thursday, September 21st a representative from the Cobb Magnet High School programs will be speaking in an assembly to the entire 8th grade class.  While parents are welcome to attend, the same information being presented is available through the link below.  The assembly will be hosted during 4th period.  More information will be published closer to time.

Cobb Magnet Programs

ALL IN THE TIMING presented at CCCEPA/Pebblebrook

Pebblebrook Performing Arts Magnet Program Presents

ALL IN THE TIMING 

The show is produced, directed, designed, acted, crewed, and stage managed entirely by recent CCCEPA/Pebblebrook grads & current students.

Performances are at 7:30pm, Thursday, August 3 & Friday, August 4.

General admission - $10.

Tickets will be available at the box office one hour before each performance or in advance through the CCCEPA magnet office. Cash only, please.

A Must Have Conversation

This is ruling huge.  It is shocking how many students confess thoughts of some kind of self-harm online or through electronic communication.  It may be anything from misuse of medications, to cutting, to even suicide.  More shocking is the number of responses encouraging the student to follow through by mocking and provoking.  Awtrey is not immune.  No school is.

The ruling Maureen Downey references changes the level of crime, which students and parents often don't realize it is, from cyberbullying to involuntary manslaughter.  Parents and school personnel alike have to do a better job educating students about the seriousness of this sort of thing.  When a situation of this type comes to our attention, and we confront the students about what they suggested someone do to self-harm, they inevitably respond by saying, "I was only joking."

TV programs glamorizing self-harm desensitize students to the seriousness of what is at stake.  There is never a "right time" to bring up a conversation of this nature, but referencing this article may make it less awkward.  Please don't wait until something happens.  Then it is too late.


The article below was posted on the AJC Get Schooled Blog By Maureen Downey on 6-17-17.

In a legal decision already being debated, a Massachusetts judge ruled today that a teenage girl who texted her boyfriend to follow through on his intent to kill himself was guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

The judge did not appear swayed by Michelle Carter’s age at the time, 17, or her own history of eating disorders, suicidal thoughts and social anxieties.

Carter’s conviction may be the most serious response to what is known as cyberbullying, the tormenting or teasing someone via social media. The guilty verdict raises questions about whether someone can goad or bully others to kill themselves and whether it can be done from afar. Because Carter was not with Conrad Roy when he killed himself in a parking lot in July of 2014 and was communicating with him via text message, legal experts expected an acquittal.

Troubled teens who met on a Florida vacation in 2012, Roy and Carter discovered they lived about an hour apart in Massachusetts. Their relationship largely existed online but they shared their personal struggles. According to court testimony, when Roy first mentioned suicide, Carter advised him to seek help but eventually endorsed his plan, assuring him, “everyone will be sad for a while but they will get over it and move on,” and advising him on how he might die,  “hang yourself, jump off a building, stab yourself idk there’s a lot of ways.”

But where Carter crossed a legal line was when she pushed, prodded and pressured Roy the night he died. As he was pumping carbon monoxide into the cab of hist truck, the 18-year-old boy began to feel ill and got out of the vehicle. In messages, Carter admonished him, “Get back in.” “You just need to do it.”

Those exhortations persuaded Judge Lawrence Moniz of Bristol County Juvenile Court that Carter’s words played a key role in Roy’s suicide, saying of the victim, “He breaks that chain of self-causation by exiting the vehicle. He takes himself out of that toxic environment that it has become…She admits in subsequent texts that she did nothing, she did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family. And finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction: ‘Get out of the truck.’”

After Roy’s death, Carter presented herself  as the grieving girlfriend, according to witnesses. She organized a fundraiser in Roy’s honor and wrote on Facebook, “Even though I could not save my boyfriend’s life, I want to put myself out there to try to save as many other lives as possible.”

Her attorneys argued Carter’s words should not be blamed for Roy’s death, that suicide is an act of free will.

In a statement tonight, Matthew Segal, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said, “Mr. Roy’s death is a terrible tragedy, but it is not a reason to stretch the boundaries of our criminal laws or abandon the protections of our constitution. There is no law in Massachusetts making it a crime to encourage someone, or even to persuade someone, to commit suicide. Yet Ms. Carter has now been convicted of manslaughter, based on the prosecution’s theory that, as a 17-year-old girl, she literally killed Mr. Roy with her words. This conviction exceeds the limits of our criminal laws and violates free speech protections guaranteed by the Massachusetts and U.S. Constitutions.”

While online bullying is widely condemned, it’s seldom treated as a serious crime. Another high-profile case of cyberbullying and its role in a youth suicide was also in the news recently.

In 2013, police in Polk County, Fla., charged two girls for aggravated stalking in connection with the suicide of a 12-year-old classmate, Rebecca Sedwick. After Rebecca jumped to her death from a silo, police learned about the girl’s stormy relationship with Katelyn Roman, 12, and Guadalupe Shaw, 14. After Rebecca’s death, Guadalupe posted, “Yes IK I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self but IDGAF.”

The arrests of  the two young girls earned international attention, but the felony charges were dropped a month later. Then, Katelyn’s mother sued, maintaining her daughter’s rights were violated by the arrest. In May, a jury ruled against the family and said there was no violation of the girl’s rights.

The highly publicized 2010 suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of Massachusetts also led to felony charges against five of her classmates, but those charges were reduced to misdemeanors and probation.

Both Phoebe and Rebecca had grappled with depression before their suicides, as had Roy. But the judge did not seem to regard Roy’s history as a mitigating factor in the case against Carter.


AJC Get Schooled Blog

Pebblebrook Spring Dance Concert

The Cobb County Center for

Excellence in the Performing Arts

presents

SPRING DANCE CONCERT

Friday, May 12 @ 7:30PM

Saturday, May 13 @ 7:30PM

Reece Performing Arts Theatre

Pebblebrook High School

Tickets ($10) are available online now:

http://www.cccepa.com/CCCEPA-Box-Office.html

13 Reasons Why TV Program

The following information was pasted from Tim Elmore's Growing Leaders blog.  The 13 Reasons Why program on Netflix is stirring a lot of conversation.  While the content isn't middle school age appropriate due to its nature (it contains scenes of self-mutilating and a graphic rape), a surprising number of Awtrey students are talking about it.  Elmore provides an excellent resource for anyone connected with students to use as talking points to help students process the program contents in a safe environment.

13 REASONS WHY: HOW TO TALK TO YOUR TEENS ABOUT THE SHOW

Suicide. It’s never a happy topic to talk about. And now, Netflix has sponsored a television series called, “13 Reasons Why” to showcase the issue. I am hearing more and more high school and college students talking about it, too.

In the show, Hannah has committed suicide, but has left tapes describing why she felt it was necessary and all the events (including bullying, rape, partying, and more) that led up to her decision to end her life. Hannah narrates her story as we see the remaining students in awkward moments grieving her loss—not knowing what to say or whether they should feel regret, anger, or something entirely different. In particular, the story focuses around the thoughts and actions of Zach and Clay who were both close to the situation and, consequently, haunted by Hannah’s death. The show highlights the tangible loneliness high school students feel too often, and the depression and angst that follow both the trivial and serious incidents that teens often face today.

I have said for years the stakes have become too high in our teen’s lives today. Events that might have caused a “bad day” when I was in school are now sources for a bad life today. According to the Jason Foundation:

• Suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10-24.
• More teens or young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, pneumonia, influenza and lung disease combined.
• There have been more military deaths from suicide than from battle in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Each day in our nation, there are an average of over 5,240 suicide attempts by young people in grades 7-12.
• What’s more, four out of five teens who attempt it—give clear warning signs.

The show has many parents, school leaders, and counselors concerned. One superintendent cited the show as the catalyst for a string of self-harming incidents in his school system. In response, Netflix has updated the show to include trigger warnings before particularly graphic episodes depicting both the act of suicide and rape. They also released a documentary (again, on Netflix) where actors and actresses in the show discuss their decisions to take part in this troubling story. Naturally, many parents and leaders, including myself, believe the ultimate solution is for teens, especially those under 18 and those struggling with mental health, self-harm, or suicidal thoughts, to simply not watch the show at all. The trouble is, as with much content on the internet, many of our teens have already seen it.

So how do we talk about this topic and this show, 13 Reasons Why with our students? I’ve had some of our blog readers request some discussion points for this topic. Let me suggest a few starter questions for you.

Questions to Discuss with Your Students:

1.  How can people feel lonely when they are never alone and always connected?

2.  Why do kids often feel depressed as they post happy pics on social media?

3.  We know that life is always better than death. But why is that so?

4.  What enables a student to hide their loneliness or angst, and later surprise people with a suicide?

5.  When is it time to “give a friend space” and when must we intrude if we suspect someone is contemplating suicide?

6.  What drives a person over the line when they believe ending their life is better than pushing ahead with life?

7.  If you or someone you know is considering suicide, where should or could you go to get help?

(Hint: make sure to mention: school counselors, parents, teachers, administration, and suicide hotlines [below])

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

* Taken from https://growingleaders.com/blog/