Cultural tension eases at FUHS due to programs

It’s a quiet Wednesday two weeks before Spring Break and the students at Fallbrook Union High School are bustling with energy, looking forward to sleeping in, surfing and hanging out. They fly through the campus like colorful birds, calling to each other, whispering idle secrets, moving between classes safely, nodding to friends, making plans. All of the kids. Not just little groups, for at Fallbrook Union High School, a unique ethnic diversity bonds them. They currently exist in harmony due to the efforts of an administration that focuses on their wellbeing.

Under the leadership of Principal Rod King, a counseling staff headed by Jaime Miramontes and supported by Associated Student Body (ASB) Director Josh Way and Dr. Peter Fellios, Director of Student Services, a network of programs consistently supports the emotional needs of the 3,000-plus person student population.

Unlike a campus secured by chain link fences topped with razor wire, with metal detectors at each entrance and armed security guards conspicuously posted, harmony appears to prevail on the Fallbrook High campus.

Make no mistake, problems do occur. But interactive programs like Breaking Down the Walls, Every 15 Minutes and Step Up (now in its second year), which include teachers, administrators, parents and students, mitigate them quickly.

September and October are the critical times on campus, says King. It’s a period of adjustment that brings 800 new students into the bewildering environment of a school and campus much larger than most students have experienced before. Fellios suggests that boys, in particular, coming from the small environment of middle school where they felt comfortable in the hierarchy, are confronted with the dilemma of figuring out how they fit into the groups of young men at the high school level. However, peer counseling that pairs an incoming freshman with a senior does much to reduce this tension and make the students feel comfortable.

Still, taking a systematic approach, a school-wide team effort with administrative backing appears to be the recipe for harmony when it comes to cultural diversity.

“If a program doesn’t have support from the district, it won’t succeed,” says Miramontes. “These programs do.”

The district enthusiastically supports their efforts, says Superintendent Tom Anthony. “We’re managing cultures that have been mad at each other for many years. [Miramontes, the school psychologist, and outside consultants] have really made a big difference.”

Statistics kept by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department bear this out, according to Detective Jane Bailey-Sease, who handles juvenile enforcement for Fallbrook. The agency measures calls for service from August through February and reported no increases in calls for 2006-2007 over 2005-2006.

Breaking Down the Walls is a five-day interactive program that creates sensitivity to differences and similarities, which results in self-reflection and community building as it unites the campus into a whole.

The Step Up program familiarizes non-traditional students in the educational process and encourages them to interact socially with local peers. It further enriches their learning through a variety of courses taught by upperclassmen and offers assistance to home-schooled students by filling gaps in their instructional needs.

Every 15 Minutes enforces the importance of making responsible choices individually and as a group, as it focuses on the risks and consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This program also involves the entire student body and plays out over the span of a week, during which students chosen from a cross-section of classes participate as “victims” of unfortunate accidents. The program is staged by volunteers from the Think First organization, firefighters from North County Fire Protection District, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, Fallbrook Hospital, CERT, Berry-Bell & Hall Fallbrook Mortuary and the California Highway Patrol.

For incoming freshmen, heading off student conflicts at Fallbrook High School starts before the first semester of the new school year, says Miramontes, who is a FUHS graduate himself and has been a Fallbrook High counselor for the past four years.

Cultural differences make it easy to stereotype newcomers, says Morris Casuto, Southwestern Director for the Anti-Defamation League. Sometimes a small incident can start problems, such as the basic elemental knowledge of how to pronounce a student’s name correctly. But “for students to learn, they have to function in a non-threatening environment,” he says.

Schools have to work on this from the top down, administration to maintenance, Casuto believes. Administrators say Casuto was instrumental in advising the district several years ago when campus unrest threatened to plague students and teachers daily.

To smooth the transition for incoming ninth-graders, Miramontes and his staff visit Potter Junior High School, Sullivan Middle School and Fallbrook parochial schools to meet graduating eighth grade students and often bring them to the high school campus for a visit.

In addition, a program administered by Josh Way will assist this fall on Freshmen Orientation Day. Titled Link Crew, it is a mentoring program that pairs up 10 freshmen with a junior and senior team to help ease entry to school on all levels. The mentors, who are first recommended by their teachers and finally selected by a committee, represent a cross-section of the student body and model excellence in their cultural makeup. They receive 10 hours of training in communication and mentoring techniques, and in so doing, develop as student leaders with the same skills as teachers.

Way, also a graduate of Fallbrook High School, says he remembers “the tension, the trash cans flying.”

It’s not like that now, he says, crediting the conflict-reduction programs and the hard work of their administrators.

“We’re all proud [of the progress], because we’ve all had our little part in it.”