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Thursday, May 01, 2008
Conference Lets Teens Talk About Violence
By Laura Nesbitt /
Mountain View Telegraph
Graham Basha, a 15-year-old freshman at Mountainair High School, said it was important for him to speak on KUNM-FM as part of the 12th Annual Head to Toe Conference about violence in the community.
“It's important for kids and adults to talk about violence. In P.E. in the first grade I got bullied a lot. They'd kick me on the back or slap me on the head,” Basha said.
Basha added that he wants to teach the community, students and adults how that experience of getting bullied made him feel because “no one tries to stop it.”
Angeline Barela, Orlando Reed, Scott Basha, Josh Mansuy, Mariah Padilla and Lesley Kingston participated along with Graham Basha in the Albuquerque conference held April 16 and 17 on school and adolescent health sponsored in part by the New Mexico Department of Health.
Linda Filippi, coordinator of Mustang Health Center, and Kelly Porter, prevention coordinator, accompanied the youths to the conference.
All the students are freshmen and sophomores except for Orlando Reed, a senior, who acted like a youth sponsor helping presenters at the conference, Porter said.
The Teen Outreach Program also took seven students to the conference, Porter said.
Mountainair High School was one of only 10 schools from throughout the state that was invited.
“It is a rural community, and there was a lot of potential in the school and community to have a peer education program, and to have the kids teach youth and adults about different health issues that they have,” Porter said about why the high school was chosen.
Among many activities at the conference, students received training on bringing what they learned back to their schools. Mountainair students are required to give four presentations at the high school before next January.
Their first presentation, which will be about 45 minutes long, will be about suicide prevention.
Five of the participating schools chose a student to participate on a KUNM-FM panel to discuss violence, suicide prevention, teen pregnancy prevention and healthier weight, Porter said. The radio presentation was broadcast Friday, and some teachers at the high school aired the program in their classrooms.
Basha has come to terms with his experience with violence.
“The kids that used to bully me are my friends now. They're nicer to me,” Basha said.
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