EGHS Student Services

October 2004

- This month is Domestic Violence Awareness month and we had Red Ribbon Week which addresses drug awareness.
- Students in Service Learning did fundraisers for Little City and Lions. They also did the Special Olympics Carnival and Sports Celebrities. Finally, these students participated in the Elk Grove Halloween Festival.
- Students involved in SADD and TATU did a variety of Red Ribbon activites. They were able to get a very large number of students to sign their names promising they would be safe at Homecoming and would not drink and drive.
- Student Council had a food drive and blood drive this month.

December 2003/January 2004

December 1st, 2003 was World Aids Day. We had two speakers from BEHIV (Better Existence with HIV) come and present to the student body about HIV/Aids prevention and the realities of living with the virus. The speakers did an excellent job getting feedback from the students and shared a wealth of pertinent information about misconceptions and truths. Along with this presentation, we had the AIDS Quilt hung for all students to see. The quilt was also hung in the hallway throughout that entire week to remind students of the many who have died from the AIDS virus.

January 8th, 2004 Ken Papineau from Northwestern University presented to the students about drug and alcohol abuse through advertising and marketing. He provided a unique perspective to the students by having them understand the amount of time and money that is put forth to advertise alcohol to youth in their age bracket. This information gave students a realistic picture of why there is an underlying pressure there for them. His interactive presentation allowed students to ask questions and get a clear understanding of the market and its mission. Ken also went over the affects of drugs and alcohol on the brain and what it does to youth their age psychologically and physically.

November 2003

Red Ribbon Week: A focus on drug and alcohol prevention where 400 students signed the chain of life and vowed to never drink and drive or abuse drugs.

Yellow Ribbon Week: A focus on suicide prevention where students were involved in creating videos, doing research, having discussions and making items to give others.

The Great American Smokeout: A focus on prevention of smoking which is sponsored by The American Cancer Society. Teens and adults signed a pledge to be smoke free or quit smoking. Many facts about smoking were shared with the staff and student body.

Turkey Bowl: A focus on HIV/AIDS prevention. A food drive was held to help support an organization called Bridges. Bridges provides money, food and housing to people with HIV/AIDS and their goal is to help people become self-sufficient.

Mix It Up: A focus on diversity where students sat those they were not familiar with in the cafeteria at lunch time.

October 16, 2003

Sheree Cunningham, a woman who works under Dorothy Brown, the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County came to speak on Teen Dating Violence and the cycles that high school-aged students can fall into. She gave many examples that were realistic and relevant to the students and had them participate and get involved with the discussions. She provided them with a brochure on the ABC's of Teen Dating Violence as well as a brochure on Domestic violence guidelines for how students can get help if they are in an abusive relationship. There was a video shown which depicted different dating scenarios that students were in. They also interviewed students in the video and they discussed why they felt they were being verbally, physically or sexually abused and what they did to make it stop. Sheree then offered students an opportunity to get involved in community service by having them do their own video on teen dating violence. If they produce a video and it is acceptable, it would be used for the "Kaleidoscope" presentations next year. The students were engaged and were left with very useful and practical information about teen dating violence.

This presentation was done Thursday, Oct 16th during all periods of the day for the entire period. Those teachers who decided to have their students attend came into the theater to view the presentation. All were invited.