At the Dec. 9, 2022, Whitehall-Coplay Communities That Care meeting, coalition members looked at their priority areas and what programs they already have in place and gaps that may need to be addressed.

One of the newer priorities for the group is parental permissiveness of some behaviors, such as underage drinking. It was noted many parents will allow their children to drink while at home, so they can control how much and make sure they don’t drive.

In the past, the CTC had a “parents who host lose the most” campaign to warn about the dangers of this practice. CTC coordinator and Penn State Extension educator Denise Continenza suggested resurrecting this initiative to try and reach more parents.

Continenza also noted one of the group members worked with Penn State students and created video public service announcements. She asked if these videos could be played at sporting events or other activities.

Whitehall High School senior Giovanni Mazzola mentioned it would be more effective if the videos featured Whitehall students. He said that would make people want to pay more attention and would reach a wider audience. WHS Principal Dr. Peter Mayes commented they have been planning to have students create more content for the scoreboard, so this would be a good project for them.

Another concern regarding parents is being able to reach and connect with them. Getting parents to come out to presentations is a challenge due to how busy and full schedules are nowadays.

Mayes mentioned the school is working with more “thoughtful coordination” to help work around schedules and reach parents at places where they already gather. It was suggested using sporting events, performances or other student activities as an opportunity to engage with families and parents instead of having a separate event and trying to get parents to come.

Mayes noted they need to be flexible and work with the families to be the most effective.

Regarding substance use prevention, the district has the Botvin Life Skills class in sixth through ninth grades. There are also a number of programs offered through Valley Youth House.

It was noted a special focus area would be vaping. In earlier meetings, the students mentioned greater education is needed about the dangers of vaping. Whitehall-Coplay Middle School eighth-grade student Dayna Nelson suggested having more details and specific education about how vaping could affect every part of their lives.

She noted they keep hearing, “It’s bad for you. It affects your lungs,” but she noted the students can easily ignore a warning like that. She said breaking it down into what exactly it will do to their health, social connections, family consequences, how it affects sports and activities, etc., will be a better way to reach the students.

Pennsylvania Youth Survey data showed a need to address the mental health of students. The district already has programs like Second Step, CBITS and Bounce Back being offered from Valley Youth House and Center for Humanistic Change. There is also school-based counseling through Lehigh Valley Health Network. Additionally, there is the Student Assistance Program.

WCMS Assistant Principal Jeff Krempasky said the Safe to Say program has been a success. He noted often times students are speaking up and reporting their concerns to try and help their peers. The students are also sharing their concerns with their parents, who also make a report with the school. This allows the administration to reach out and get the student the help or resources he or she may need.

“We have a lot of things on the response side of things but not so much in the prevention,” Chad Stefanyak, WHS counselor, said.

In other matters, Mayes mentioned there are two new items recommended by the administration and up for approval before the school board.

One is the restructuring of the 10-grade career class to include a financial literacy component. Under this change, half of the class will be the career exploration aspect of the class, and the other half will include information on budgeting, money management, banking and more.

The other recommendation is the addition of a community service graduation requirement. Students would be required to perform 12 hours during their high school careers to qualify for graduation.

“This is a good place to start,” Mayes said, adding this will help students build connections with the community and perhaps connect with their passions.

Stefanyak noted this will help get every student involved in something beyond just normal high school classwork and help strengthen ties to the school and larger community.

These items are being proposed and awaiting approval from the school board.

The next CTC meeting will be held 9 a.m. Jan. 20 in the LGI room at WHS.