THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180547
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
Seated at a child-size table in her cozy office at Larrymore Elementary, Norfolk school counselor Nancy Lenthall encouraged the five fourth-graders to write down their feelings on a recent morning.
The youngsters could pick from six rows of words she had written on a wall poster, including ``popular,'' ``depressed,'' ``friendly,'' ``sad'' and ``mad.''
One boy said he had forgotten to eat breakfast and felt bad about it. Another said he was depressed because his mom and dad had missed a recent school event.
During the 30-minute session, Lenthall helped them face those emotions, and asked them to think about what they could do to feel better.
``The thing to remember,'' she said, ``is that you can change your negative feelings into positive feelings by the way you think about them.''
In elementary schools across Virginia, similar encounters, designed to build children's self-esteem, play out every day between students and counselors.
But all that could change.
After more than a year of wrangling, the state Board of Education is poised to vote in Richmond today on rules that could redefine the way guidance and counseling programs are run in the state's public schools.
Twenty years ago, school counselors worked mainly in high schools, advising students on career choices and academic course selection. But starting in the mid-1980s in Virginia, counselors became a presence in elementary schools, and they entered a new realm of student life - the emotional side - an area that makes many parents uncomfortable.
On the table are key questions: Does the guidance and counseling program represent an intrusive government that is undermining parental rights? Or is it a vital resource to help kids do better in school by addressing personal needs that may be distracting them from their studies.
The board, like the public, is divided.
``I think that whatever the board does there will be people unhappy,'' said board Chairman James P. Jones.
The issue revolves mainly around a proposal to change the existing system from one that offers children easy access to counseling services to one that would first require written parental permission.
Conservative allies of Republican Gov. George Allen, who hold a 5-4 majority on the board, favor giving parents more control. They want to require schools to get permission from parents before offering counseling services.
Under current state guidelines, parents can exclude their children from non-academic counseling. Parents now must take the initiative and sign a form asking that their children not be included in classroom, small-group or individual counseling sessions.
Michelle Easton, an Allen appointee, is leading the board's effort to change that.
``I think it's important enough that parents should affirmatively advocate that they want their child to participate in something that is psychological or value-laden or is simply non-academic,'' Easton said.
``As a parent, I don't want schools getting into my children's psyche - it's intrusive. And to me it's such an inappropriate use of school time. I want them focusing on core academics and passing on knowledge.''
Kathy S. Larrew, a Chesapeake parent who shares Easton's view, said, ``Exploring feelings at school is not the appropriate place. That's what Sunday school is for or before school or after school or during lunch.''
Larrew remains angry over an incident two years ago in which a counselor asked students in her son's class to draw a picture of the saddest thing that had happened to them. He began crying, an embarrassing moment, because he had just moved and lost his best friend.
``I think there are many parents who don't realize group counseling is going on,'' she said.
Only a slight percentage of parents refuse to allow their children to participate in counseling programs. In Fairfax County, for instance, the state's largest school district, parents of about 2 percent of the district's students have removed them from counseling activities, typical for most districts in Virginia.
Counselors say their role is to help children achieve better in school, not to pry into their personal lives. Grades sometimes plummet, for example, when parents divorce or a loved one dies.
``I feel that children need a source of support to go to, a sort of unconditional supporter they can go to talk to and think through things,'' said Larrymore's Lenthall. ``They have to feel good in order to learn.''
Board members and educators who favor the current system say requiring parental permission would be burdensome on schools and deny services to children whose parents don't respond.
``It would almost make my office off limits to children,'' said Pat Lynn, an elementary counselor in Staunton. ``Children are in my office all the time, even if it's just coming in for a hug.''
Sandra P. Burns, a Norfolk parent, said she supports the current system, saying school counselors have helped her and her children weather a divorce and a family death.
``There were things I couldn't answer, or answer adequately, and I think she (the counselor) was a great help,'' Burns said.
Proponents of the existing system hope to fashion a compromise with the Allen faction to allow local school boards - rather than the state board - to decide the issue of student access, said board member Alan Wurtzel. ``It's consistent with the governor's effort to decentralize state government and place decisions at the local level,'' Wurtzel, one of the board's four Democratic appointees, said. by CNB