Parenting Resources: Student Sexting, Eating Disorders, Helping Teens Manage Risk
For principals, student sexting a speeding ‘freight train,’ full of peril
by Benjamin Herold, Education Week
For Jane Griffin, the principal at Louisiana’s Winnfield High, the moment came when one of her students found a staff member’s smartphone laying on a desk, picked it up, and took a picture of his own genitals.
For Shafta Collazo, an assistant principal at Delaware’s Woodbridge Middle School, it came when a student got mad at his girlfriend and decided to “Airdrop” compromising digital photos of her to dozens of other children using a file-transfer service for Mac devices.
And for assistant principal Deirdra Chandler, the harsh realization that responding to youth “sexting” is now an inescapable part of the job, even for leaders of kindergarten through fifth-grade schools, came after one of her young students at South Carolina’s Erwin Elementary sent out sexual imagery of another student to his friends.
When I first realized my daughter has an eating disorder
by Amy Rumizen,Mother Well Magazine
On a sunny day in June we picked up my daughter’s prom dress from Lena, our favorite seamstress. After a frenzied online search it had arrived—the perfect yellow dress with its delicate spaghetti straps—and it had only needed simple alterations. As Lauren tried it on to make sure the length was right, Lena said, “It ees too big,” in her lilting Italian accent.
“See? In the shoulders and in the width. The dress does not fit. What happened? I fix right.”
I glanced at Lauren. Her face had a peculiar smile, one of pride.
I tried to ignore the icy fear that was building from my stomach to my neck. As we got into the car to drive home, I said, “Why have you lost so much weight? I think we need to see the doctor.”
“You can’t make me go,” said Lauren. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”
It was a statement I would hear many more times.
How to Help Teenagers Manage Risk
Jess P. Shatkin explains why teens take risks, and how we can help keep them safe.
By Jill Suttie
Teenagers. We’ve all been one at one time or another, and we probably remember how fraught those years were. Growing up is risky, there’s no way around it. But why did we, as teens, get pulled toward taking dangerous chances in the first place? And, now that we’ve grown up, how can we help the next generation of teens develop good judgment, especially when whatever we say seems to fall on deaf ears?
These questions are at the heart of Jess P. Shatkin’s new book, Born to Be Wild. Dr. Shatkin, a nationally recognized expert on child and adolescent psychiatry, has learned that giving kids dire statistics or telling them to just say “no” doesn’t work. Chronicling the latest research on the adolescent brain and effective parenting programs, he provides a path for parents, teachers, and others who want to help guide kids toward making better choices around risk.
