Courageous Conversations Content for MHS Website

History

Courageous Conversations is the initiative Mr. Evans announced at Back To School Night.

This initiative originated in August, 2011, in response to a parent’s questions regarding what steps parents/guardians should take when they discover their son or daughter has been drinking with friends. Parents, police personnel, and a prevention specialist met with Mr. Evans, Principal of Magruder High School, to discuss the possibility of addressing this concern with a Parent Coffee.

The intent was to provide an opportunity for parents to have an informal discussion with police personnel and other professionals involved in underage alcohol abuse prevention on how to effectively intervene with their adolescents.

There was a consensus that our youth need guidance in making good decisions on other threats to their health and safety, such as bullying (including cyber-bullying and teen dating violence), and abuse of marijuana and prescription drugs.

The possibility of forming a parent mentoring group was also discussed.

Mr. Evans stated that the father of a Magruder student who died in a recent single-vehicle DUI collision and the State’s Attorney for Montgomery County had both expressed an interest in supporting this initiative; they joined the group at the second meeting.

The general consensus of that meeting was that we need to focus our efforts on the parents, so those who are enabling or condoning underage drinking will stop doing so.

(Minutes of both meetings are available from Patty Winters, Courageous Conversations Chair, at .)

Mission Statement

Courageous Conversations is a coalition of parents, public servants, school administrators and staff, and prevention specialists. Though community forums and other methods of public outreach, our mission is to increase parent awareness of how adolescents make bad choices (such as how they find opportunities and what motivates them to engage in unsafe, unhealthy, or illegal behavior) and to offer parenting strategies on how to guide their adolescents away from harmful behaviors and influences.

We also work to foster a community spirit in which parents will support each other in looking out for one another’s children, and engage in a respectful dialogue when one is concerned about another parent’s teen’s behavior (privately, with that teen’s parents).

All members volunteer their time to this coalition.

Courageous Conversations Input Opportunities

Wednesday, October 5, 7:30 to 9:00 PM in the MEDIA CENTER: Come to give your input on what topics you would like Courageous Conversations to address this academic year (October through May) including – but not limited to – bullying issues, mental health issues, and marijuana and alcohol trends among our teens, as well as what format you would like: presentation by experts on a topic followed by a questions/answer period, round table discussion, workshop (small groups with facilitators for each group), or other ideas you might have.

Each topic and event can have a different format.

DON’T FORGET TO BRING A FRIEND!!

Thursday, October 27, 7:30 to 9:00 PM in the MEDIA CENTER: Our first Courageous Conversations event. Topic and format to be determined at October 5 meeting.

If you are unable to attend the October 5 meeting but want to contribute your ideas, please contact Patty Winters, Courageous Conversations Chair at or 301-519-7537.

Please note that “Courageous Conversations” is a tentative name for this initiative. You are welcome to send me your ideas for a different name, and a notice will be posted when the new name is selected.