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Neighbors | Jessica Harker .Seventh and eighth graders at Boardman Glenwood Junior High School participated in the school's first Cyber Safety presentation March 26.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker .Officer Phil Merlo introduced Dawn Powell from Compass Family March 26 to Glenwood Junior High School students for the school's first Cyber Safety presentation event.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker .Jill Miller from Akron Children's hospital presented during Glenwood Junior High School's first Cyber Safety event for seventh and eighth grade students.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker .Jill Miller from Akron Children's hospital addressed the topic of consent with girls from Glenwood Junior High School at the Cyber Safety presentation event March 26.
By JESSICA HARKER
Boardman Glenwood Junior High School students learned about internet safety with the school’s first Cyber Safety and Online Responsibility program.
Representatives from Akron Children’s Hospital, the Boardman Police Department and Compass Family Counseling all presented to students during the event.
“I think it’s just a whole different generation and through all of this we are just trying to teach healthy relationships,” said Sgt. Mike Sweeney, head of the Boardman School Resource Officers.
Sweeney said the program focused on the ideas of sexting and consent in building healthy relationships.
“We are trying to bring them back a little bit and say this is how you should treat others and this is show you should be treated,” Sweeney said.
Students in each grade were split up, with boys attending the program in the auditorium and girls in the cafeteria.
Jill Miller, a victims advocate with the Child Advocacy center at Akron Children’s Hospital, said that this was a great way to ensure the students weren’t embarrassed and were able to ask questions.
“We had a good reaction from the students,” Miller said. “They were listening, they were engaged and they were asking questions.”
The program was created because of a growing problem in schools with the misuse of the internet, especially social media.
“We can preach till we are blue in the face with these kids but there is a disconnect,” said Officer Phil Merlo, an SRO at Boardman. “We are trying to get out ahead of it and give them the tools to make good decisions.”
Merlo said that along with consent and sexting presenters were discussing the legal ramifications of many of the choices students are faced with at this age.
“I tell them that we aren’t trying to use scare tactics but we are giving you facts and surveys and statistics and it is going to be up to you. Because they are at that age where they have the right to make a decision,” Merlo said.
Sweeney said that representatives from other districts, including Canfield and Springfield, attended one day of the program to look into incorporating it into their schools.
“Boardman is being the tip of the spear here and other schools are understanding this is a really great idea,” Sweeney said.
Merlo said that in the future he hopes to see other similar programs developed for both parents and younger students.
“This is not a problem that is unique to Boardman,” Merlo said. “All the SRO’s in this area are talking and say we have the same problems and we have to do something or we are going to lose these kids.”