Elyria High roundtable explores student, staff concerns

ELYRIA — An Elyria High School video series hopes to "inspire and educate" during the ongoing pandemic. "The Forum," a monthly roundtable, looks to tackle issues students and community members face — from students' perspectives on Black History Month, to what it means to be a parent, a father or other role model. On Friday afternoon, Elyria High students and staff tag-teamed two videos: one on bullying and the other on the experiences of women as teachers and mothers. Community Engagement Liaison Steven Valles and student engagement liaison James West collaborated on the project. "We knew that we couldn't bring everybody in together, so what we were going to do is do something that we thought that we could send out to everybody," Valles said. From there, a parent Zoom meeting was launched in November, a chance for families to talk about what is working and what isn't during the pandemic. The month after that, the first video session focused on fathers' perspectives and what that role means. "The overall theme that kept coming out there is if the father is in place, then the student will be in place, nine times out of 10," he said. "And it's hard." For Black History Month, several Elyria High students talked about their experiences, including what obstacles they've had to overcome. For senior Angelica Johnson, those obstacles included her home having been shot at three separate times because of her and her family's race. Conversions are the key of the series, something that wouldn't have happened without Valles and West looking to connect to students and families while the district remains mostly remote. "Whatever was wrong, some of the things that were wrong now are just exacerbated, it's just made it worse," Valles said. "The issue of isolation, the issue of I would say 70 percent of our kids are virtual, 30 percent are in person and of the 70 percent, attendance is terrible." Friday's session saw Marty Sutton, director of Potential in School Mentoring Program in Columbus, and William Russell, associate director of Potential in School Mentoring Program, lead the anti-bullying roundtable with seniors Alexandra Crofts, Kobe Thomas and Bryce Badford. Upstairs in the multimedia room, Deborah King, daughter of boxing promoter Don King, and now a motivational speaker and interventionist, talked with women who had students in their classrooms, and at home. Hamilton Elementary Principal Jodie Johnson, history teacher Ann Runion, basketball and track and field coach Jackie Below and history teacher Megan Johnson gathered to talk about their experiences on both sides of the coin — as a mother, and an educator. The goal, like all the others, was opening a dialogue to talk about difficult issues. "We think that conversations are going to build relationships and relationships are the foundation of everything that's going to happen that's worthwhile," Valles said. "You can have a transaction, you can have a business agreement, but when you have a relationship, then that's when things get real and it's long lasting, it's impactful." Once complete, both videos recorded Friday will be posted to the district's YouTube page. Contact Carissa Woytach at 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.