Getting Advice Through Bits and Bytes
By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2005
Think of it as Dear Abby by e-mail. At least that's how 20 students at Libertyville High School in Lake County, IL, are billing the new peer-counseling program they launched online in January.
Students are able to e-mail questions about anything that's troubling them without revealing their identities, and their counterparts get back to them just as anonymously.
"We launched [the program] because some of the kids were having trouble with the idea of having to talk to one of the adult counselors first," says Amanda Shepard, a high school senior and president of the peer-counseling group.
While peer mediation has been used in schools for years, conducting those conversations exclusively through e-mail is a new approach. As young people chat with their friends more and more over the Internet, it occurred to Libertyville's students that some young people might prefer asking for help over the Web. "Part of the problem was that kids would be embarrassed talking face-to-face," says Shepard, who helped create the program. "Now they can do this in the privacy of their own home."
Students can also log in from school. Besides Libertyville's computer lab, the library is also outfitted with more than 30 PCs, all of which have Internet connections and access to e-mail. Thus far, questions have ranged from "A friend is talking behind my back. What do I do?" to those alluding to serious family difficulties. For example, one student wrote that her mother accused her of causing her addiction to alcohol.
The student mediators read through the e-mail messages and query adult counselors only if they don't know how to handle a specific question. But the actual correspondence is always student-to-student, always confidential—and no one's name is ever shared.
Although few students have submitted questions so far, program organizers are hopeful that interest will soon increase. And Shepard is assured that her friends are doing their part. "They're spreading the word," she says. Presumably by e-mail.
