When reporters came to the Community Open House at North on February 13th, they seemed to have missed the excitement on the students’ faces. Articles spoke of the school as a “low” functioning school and yet missed all the encouraging student projects and activities. How do we only rate schools’ based on test scores?!

North High has been going through a transformation the past year and has allowed The Conflict Center to be a part of the new face of North. TCC is providing a bully prevention campaign using a positive peer pressure technique called Social Norming. We have found very encouraging results through continual student surveys. We have found that most students engage in positive behaviors instead of bullying or using violence. However, most students believe that the majority of their classmates bully others. With the negative press, I am not surprised to see those results. Press focused on negative incidents feeds student misperceptions and creates an atmosphere of fear which affects academics. TCC is dedicated to helping change the misperceptions at North because as the misperceptions change, so will behavior.

Walking the halls of North, I have experienced a group of students who respect adults and politely open doors. During the open house I was pleased to have many conversations with senior students excited about graduating, art students gearing up to take an art trip to Paris, and a few parents who were concerned with safety and their child’s education. During these conversations we also enjoyed the background noise of the marching band, cheerleaders, and my favorite, the student driven mariachi band. The excitement, the activity, and the polite demeanor of the students are all strengths of North High that we should celebrate!

There are many great things happening at North and we are proud to be a part of that positive growth. Anyone who was paying attention at the Community Open House can see that the students are excited about the changes at their school. The school staff and students’ exuded so much school pride that night; I am astonished that anyone could miss it!