School Counselor Interview

David Profitt
EDC 545: School Visit with Cheryl ---, 12th grade counselor at Lima City Schools.

As I am decidedly on the Community Counseling track, I ascertained that a specific in-depth interview to answer pre-chosen questions would be of little value to me. Rather, I went to my interview hoping for a relaxed conversation whereby I could glean an understanding of how this particular school counselor felt about her 27 years on the job and her charges. Putting away my notes, we instead talked about the humanity and culture surrounding Lima City High School today.

There are approximately 613 school districts in Ohio. Lima ranks 606 on socioeconomic levels. As far as Ohio goes, Lima’s students are among the poorest and the students’ parents are among the least educated. Seventy percent of Lima’s student’s are on free or reduced lunches, and the school system offers a free breakfast to any students who wishes to participate. Though in many ways this lower economic status is clearly a curse, there is one blessing observed by the counselors and teachers – openness.

Because everyone knows everyone has troubles, no one feels the need to hide things. The stereotypical “don’t talk about anything” commonly associated with teenagers doesn’t apply in the same way here. If a student is having troubles at home, he or she doesn’t feel he has to hide it from his peers/counselors. Further, if a student seems upset, or even suicidal, many other students will report that student to the counselor if he or she does not go in voluntarily. This shows a familial like caring in the school, a sense of community, and both the counselors and teachers in the system should be proud they permit such an open environment.

This isn’t all to say that life is heaven like at Lima City Schools. Poverty brings problems, and just like every other school system in America, so do teenagers. Drugs and violence do exist in and around the school. In fact, in the past two years, there have been multiple murders within a few blocks of the high school. But even with that, school pride and a local sense of safety within the school walls seems to be high. After school, I noticed that students enjoyed hanging out on school grounds and interacted with the teachers.

Cheryl’s job as a senior counselor mostly involves college applications, filling out federal aid forms for students whose parents are unable to and other similar, future orientated tasks. Cheryl states that approximately 95% of her counseling time is academic. The ninth grade counselor, however, in Cheryl’s opinion, spends much more time helping students with transition and personal issues. As the student’s age and become more focused, more and more of the counseling needed is to help them in future advancement. Cheryl enjoys being at the top of this needs scale. There are four counselors in the high school, one for each grade, and there are seven in the district – one for each of the other schools.

Though Lima’s high school is an older building, the city has recently been awarded grants from the state and is in the process of building all new schools. Lima will have a new, technologically equipped high school in two years. Admittedly, this will not change the conditions of the surrounding city, but hopefully, the new environment will encourage the students to push towards grasping the modern world in their personal lives. However, there will always be some school students who can not be motivated.

To Cheryl, “Gang Bangers” are those students. These are the students whose soul desire is to use others for their own advancement. They don’t care who they hurt in the process. These students are not “left out” by the system, they don’t want to have anything to do with the system. When it comes to gang bangers, the counselors are at a loss. The students who are left out are the middle students. They neither appear to need help nor excel, thus earning extra efforts at advancement. As it is in many schools, those in the middle of the road receive the least attention. If this were not the case, however, it could be possible that these students could be pushed to the above average range, where they could reach for higher goals than they currently hold. To do this takes money, because it takes money to bring in more counselors. I share Cheryl’s frustration that too much of the employment budget goes to people who never actually work with the kids. Removing some administration (or lowering some six figure salaries) and hiring more counselors may prove beneficial, but realistically a difficult task to accomplish. Compensation should go to those who truly do the work, but it often does not. However, this is not something that can be changed by Cheryl, or any other one person for that matter.

I enjoyed the interview, and I learned much about Cheryl’s job. Interestingly, the frustrations she holds are the same frustrations I held when I worked for a county board of MR/DD. Government red tape and spending policies seem to be the same everywhere.

Filed under: EDC 545 Counseling Techniques Lab
Copyright: October, 2002 - David Profitt