Parent, family engagement event at RSHS touches on social media, drugs, STEM

Nov. 5—ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County Schools hosted a series of classes and discussions, named the Whole Child Harvest on Thursday night for parents, with topics such as effective social media management, drug prevention and best parenting practices.

Each class was about 30 minutes along and parents had the opportunity to attend three sessions of the nine available.

Emily Nicholson with Alcohol and Drug Services presented basic information about drugs and what parents need to know.

"There has been a 61% increase in the use of drugs among eighth graders among in 2020 vs. 2016," Nicholson said. "That's just a four year difference."

Nicholson discussed the extreme dangers of fentanyl, and how it may be laced into minor drugs, including marijuana. To demonstrate, she spilled a packet of sugar on a table and asked audience members the number of individuals that an equivalent amount of fentanyl could kill.

Among answers of one or ten, the real answer was 5,000.

Nicholson detailed how easy it can be for young people to access illicit drugs, especially through the Internet and social media. To conclude, she said that parents need to be aware of who their children are interacting with, digitally and in-person.

Richmond Senior High counselors Nikki Wells-Smith and Amanda Cipriani went further in-depth about social media and how parents can effectively establish a healthy relationship between their children and technology.

"Don't feel like as a parent that you are invading their privacy," Wells-Smith said. "Really, it's our responsibility as parents to monitor what they have access to."

Parents who are concerned about the content that their children are seeing can set up their phone so that any downloaded apps must be approved by a parent. Wells-Smith and Cipriani encouraged parents to follow their children on social media whenever possible, not to pry, but to appropriately monitor.

They also detailed ways to effectively reduce how much screen time a child has each day. Wells-Smith said it's important for parents to model appropriate phone usage, and that it can be difficult to enforce when parents can be just as guilty as having their head buried in the phone.

"Devices add to anxiety," Wells-Smith said, adding that the school system is seeing an increase in students who request homebound learning. "32% of teens struggle with some type of anxiety disorder. 33% of our girls have body issues that are amplified by social media."

The counselors also added that there's been a large decline in children who are spending time with their friends outside. Their class ended with a clip from Filter First, a series of videos that educates parents, teachers and teens on appropriate and positive social media. The Filter First curriculum will be introduced to middle and high students in RCS this year.

"I learned that now I can approve the apps [that my son] is downloading," said Capricia Griffin.

Bruce Stanback, in a class entitled 'Real Talk,' reviewed different parenting types styles, and asked parents what type of styles they model — permissive, authoritarian, authoritative or uninvolved, with the authoritative approach proven to be the most effective.

"I don't think we're raising children anymore," Stanback said. "We're preparing them to be adults. That's a more important focus — preparing them for the workforce, marriage, to be involved in the community."

While parents may utilize different parenting styles, even between their children, Stanback said the foundation to being a parent is a healthy relationship.

"That's kind of the biggest thing, is making sure that the relationship the parents have with kids is healthy," Stanback said. "Where the kids feel comfortable talking to their parents about issues."

Assistant district attorney Alex Harris held a class about the dangers of pictures, particularly sexting and illegal activity, that can have permanent, legal ramifications.

"Again with social media, there's no deleting it," Harris said.

Other classes includes the dangers of vaping, STEM lessons, Career and Technical Education information. and early learning readiness skills.

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Reach Matthew Sasser at 910-817-2671 or msasser@yourdailyjournal.com to suggest a correction.