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SALT LAKE CITY -- Fall, freshmen and football are right around the corner, so Utah high school student body officers are preparing to address the needs of their constituencies.
"We have a hard time with stereotypes," said Shayla Thompson, SBO from Kearns High School.
To address that at Kearns High, SBOs are planning an inspirational teen summit where they'll bring in speakers. They've also added a student leadership position: vice president of cultural affairs.
"We're just trying to continue what last year's officers did in order to form more unity and bring our student body together as one," Thompson said.
Rebecca Powell, an SBO from Taylorsville High School, said, "I've noticed a lot of time we have a lot of students who aren't getting involved as much as they could."
So, at Taylorsville High, student leaders will push student involvement, and they'll plan service projects.
Granite School District advisors urged students to lead on two fronts: safe driving and safe schools. They stressed the district's anonymous tip line. SBOs agree they can help in these areas by reporting safety violations they hear about to school police officers and by mediating conflicts.
"If there's a problem between students, work them out in a calm fashion to make sure they don't escalate any further," said Sam Meredith, SBO at Skyline High School.
"I have had people come up to me with concerns about their personal safety and what they've noticed going on," Powell said.
Most Utah high school students go back to class in just more than a week. Send us your back-to-school stories.
E-mail: dwimmer@ksl.com
