Notes From the Counselors

This page is meant to house all the information regarding presentations and/or recommendations from the counseling office. If you have any questions, please email your child's counselor or reach out via phone (856) 881-7007 x5020

Often our BHMS Counselors will put some reminders out about reminders and support for our adolescent children. These notes this week focus on social media safety.

Bulldog Families, we need your help in reminding our Bulldogs about school rules and responsible decision making. This includes

• Refraining from the use of cell phones and Airpods (unless directed by the teacher)
• Charging computers each night
• Frequently restarting computers to receive updates
• Using social media and school and personal technology appropriately
• Carrying and displaying their student IDs
• Working towards the Bulldog Bash

As if a pandemic wasn't enough, schools and law enforcement are faced with trying to address threats that come over social media. Many of these social media sites do great things to connect students with each other. However, when unchecked, impulsive teens and adolescents can be subjected to bullying or safety concerns. When irresponsible people dabble in social media, the result is often hate and vitriol that bombards our kids. We as a school do our best to respond but by the time we get involved, the damage is already done.

Recently, we have had a counseling lesson on social media etiquette in the 8th grade with the support of Officer Hamilton and will continue to have these talks with the entire school in the upcoming year.

Some things you should know:

1. Snap Chat: Please check and ensure parent filters are enabled on your children's snapchat and especially set to private so only your child's friends can "snap" each other. We've had situations where random people infiltrated our students' snap chat with inappropriate images or messages. Also with snap chat, people can send pictures or message that quickly erase. Unless your child screen shots things, these messages are hard to retrieve and the hate or bullying has already been done.

2. Tik Tok or Discord: Again these platforms (like snap chat and if the parental controls and privacy settings are not enabled) students can be met with an onslaught of negative information. Most of our country's threats of violence are happening on Tik Tok. The vandalism that was going on in the fall was a result of Tik Tok challenges. Tik Tok is highly unregulated content. The challenges and threats in Tik Tok can have felony or misdemeanor charges With Discord, we had a recent threat on that platform as well.

3. Instagram: With Instagram, we have had our own students make fake pages, especially talking about students. The owners of these pages make fun of students, make lies about students, antagonize drama between people, or make up that students are in relationships with each other. Regardless of the content, the sole purpose is to tear people down. Please ensure that your children do not follow anything like this. By following these pages, it gives credence to these students who seek to emotionally harm their peers.