Gordon Clay
Brookings, OR

Another professional family has moved back to Ohio having endured one only one year in Brookings with their three school-age boys. Two reasons: because their son dropped in every category of the IEP program at the end of the year compared to when he started and because they couldn't get any action regarding the bullying of their IEP child. They told, they were told a phrase that's been in the school district for years - "no blood no foul". When they saw the report that was admission of no guilt in the two-year complaint by two families in the girls basketball program, that was it. They decided to go back to Ohio.

The father, by the way, reported that he's had seven new professional job openings at this company and has not be able to fill any of them with kids, with parents who have kids because of our reputation. I hope the board really gets serious and makes public what the actions they are really going to be. The Coach's Creede is a great PR release with very little substance or consequences. As an uh action has to be Quote "...a MAJOR violation of District policies, OSAA rules or regulations or Oregon laws" Unquote to be relieved of their coaching responsibilites and there are not other consequences.

1. I haven't been able to find the Coache's Creed on the web site. And I wondered if the web site still has a search engine?

2. The school district lost 84 students last year, we should know the reason for all of them. It would be most interesting to know how many stayed in the district but started home schooling other than religious purposes. I understand the local home-school community is quite active and successful.

3. Why the board has declined to deal with the fact that they remain the only school district in the county to ignore student safety in the Mission Statement.

4. The longer the board keeps it a secret what steps they are actually going to take to prevent another situation like girl's basketball team, the more doubt is... the more doubt there is that anything will change.

5. When will student/parent handbooks for the three schools be available on the web?

6. As you know, this is Suicide Prevention Month. What we know is that “Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources to cope with pain.” That’s all it’s about. You are not a bad person, or crazy, or weak, or flawed, because you feel suicidal. It doesn’t even mean that your want to die - it only means that you have more pain than you're able to cope with right now. That is the purpose of the semi..., semi-colon campaign.

In our school district I believe the elementary and middle school kids feel there is a stigma to go to the county health clinic on campus, and some of the high school boys do too. With teachers and administrators developing the skills to identify depression, PTSD, anxiety, and suicide ideation, this will make it safer for our students in need to get help before it is too late. Letting the student body know about the semicolon, what the semicolon stands for and by wearing a semicolon on their name badge signifies your willingness to offer support to any student who needs it. This will go a long way in reducing the stigma of asking for help.

By the way a suicide means a person put a period at the end of their life. A semi-colon means that they decided to go on, a dificult reminder I considered suicide 31 years ago and uh it's. I don't want to lose another Dorothy Shull.

Regarding five-pack semicolon kits I passed out last month - I've still have plenty of buttons and window decals to take care of every employee of the district and then some.

As suicide prevention month is winding down, bully prevention month of October is gearing up.

One of the things that was done uh a couple of years ago if Spirit Day on October 16th. a day when wearing purple signifies that you won't talk to anyone all day in support of LGB students who stay silent about who they are of every day of their life to feel safe. This was done a couple of years ago and it would be nice to do it again during bully prevention month.

My only other question is may I leave some rack cards that explains the semi-color campaign and buttons over there for people to pick-up when they leave? Thank you so much.

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 What the minutes say

Gordon Clay: spoke of a family that has moved out of the area. He commented on the Coaches Creed, the mission statement not having safety addressed in it, parent student handbooks availability on the web, and suicide prevention month. Gordon talked about the semi colon campaign and left material for the board and public to review.