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Sunset High School has a strong student support
group program which has been an integral part of the school for some years.
Teachers, the counselor, aides and others have been trained to be co-facilitators for
these groups, and several staff members are trainers for the County Department of
Education. Students voluntarily sign up to be in the support group. Sunset
High School currently offers 16 support groups including: Sobriety, Advanced Sobriety,
Women's, Latino Men's, General, Communication and SHO (Sunset Helping Others . . .
tutoring at the junior high schools). Our rationale for having such a program is
that when students have challenges or distractions in their lives, it makes it difficult
for them to perform, or perform effectively, in school. We find that our group
program assists students in developing their communications skills, working with conflict
resolution, expressing their feelings, and learning alternative ways of working with
themselves in life situations. Sometimes it's just a good place to talk.
Support groups foster students seeing the similarity among all of them . . . regardless of
age, sex, race, or beliefs. We have no fights at Sunset High School, and we would
like to think that groups have been an effective prevention tool. There is an
atmosphere of openness and communication and personal empowerment at the school. Our
students volunteer to assist at Group Facilitator Trainings for the County because their
skill levels in working with one another are so high. Content varies from
week-to-week (groups meet one hour one day per week) - students bring the content to
group and are free to set the tone.
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