by Kimia Pakdaman
Editor-in-Chief   

   It is a new year for Nancy Offer’s two groups, Students to Students and Freshman Skills Day. As everyone becomes accustomed to their classes and new schedule, these two groups are preparing for presentations. 

  The Students to Students group’s first project is giving presentations to the sophomores. The four teams of Students to Students have split into two groups to start their presentations. The Be Respectful and Be Aware teams are working together to present the history elective classes different skits and games to educate them about respecting each other. “We are showing the classes different scenarios where respect is needed,” said senior Matt Knecht. The presentation includes videos showing different situations, such as a couple talking about sex, and also games such as Jeopardy. “We have developed a wide variety of ways to share [information about being safe] to our student body,” commented Offer.

   The other two groups, the Be Healthy and Be Safe teams, have their presentations in November and March. They will be talking to the sophomores about “risky business,” as senior Autefeh Sajjadi called it. “We just want the sophomores to understand the dangers and to help them keep safe,” said senior Devan Mairose. Sajjadi added, “Basically, we will be talking about risky behavior, such as eating disorders, driving under the influence, alcohol poisoning, unprotected sex, and a lot of other things.”
 
   In addition to these sophomore presentations, Students to Students will be handing out Upper-class Wisdom Handbooks for juniors and “Don’t Drink and Drive” key lanyards. Students to Students will also provide seniors with a publication called “When You Become 18…” provided by the California State Bar Association.

   Offer’s other group, Freshman Skills Day has been working all summer to prepare for Freshman Skills Day, on Nov. 6. Two leaders will teach a class of thirty freshmen about current issues for high school students. “The transition to high school can be confusing as freshmen experience greater freedoms and responsibilities as well as new challenges. We believe they benefit from their peers’ experiences,” stated Offer.

   Leaders will be the teachers for one of the five classes: sex, body/self-image, pressures, relationships, and weekend scene. The liaison for the weekend scene, junior Megan Johnson, works closely with Offer to figure out how to present the information. “We have a hard job because we know that high schoolers will go out to parties and drink, so we want to tell them how to do it responsibly. But there is a fine line between telling them not to drink and condoning drinking. We have to be careful,” said Johnson.

   As each group does its presentations to different classes, the students are finding out that these groups, as well as the administration, know that students will be drinking and going to parties. However, they hope that teenagers will be safe as they are doing it.