Would you like to make a difference

with your peers?

Come join SOS!

Students Offering Support (SOS) trains and supports youth advocates

to listen, share, help, mentor, and teach their peers.

It encompasses four programs, each with its own focus:

Conflict Mediation

Freshman Transition

Kids Learning Empathy and Respect (KLEAR)

Safe School Ambassadors (SSA)

Freshman Transition focuses on building a welcoming, safe and caring community by teaming each 9th grader with an upper-class Peer Leader.

Peer Leaders are sophomores, juniors and seniors who complete approximately 12 hours of training to prepare for their work with the freshmen.

Orientation Day is the kick-off event for Freshman Transition and the new school year. Freshmen and new students attend a Welcome Rally and tour the campus with a Peer Leader.

From August through March, pairs of Peer Leaders meet every 2 to 4 weeks with a small group of freshmen during World Studies I. They teach a different theme at each meeting: getting to know your group, getting to know your school, values, stereotyping, bullying, harassment, and working together. Peer Leaders guide a variety of activities around each theme to help freshmen develop the communication and listening skills needed to build cultural competencies and to succeed in school and within their families and communities.

Peer Leaders are available to meet informally with freshmen outside of class time.

As part of our Freshman Transition Program, our peer leaders take all freshmen on a low ropes course with their social studies teachers. The freshmen bond and engage in trust and team building activities that increase the feeling of community at Woodside High School. Research shows that students who feel connected to school are more successful than those who don't.

Conflict Mediation provides a safe and confidential environment for settling problems between students, teachers and/or parents in a non-violent manner.  Peer Mediators complete 12 hours of training to learn the mediation process. 

Mediation sessions are held during school time on an as-needed basis throughout the school year.  Any WHS community member (students, teachers, administrators, staff or parents) may refer a dispute to our program by contacting one of the coordinators in person, or by phone or email.  During a session, two trained mediators sit down with the two disputants and help them solve the problem.

The Safe School Ambassador Program is a national violence prevention program that promotes the power of teens to intervene when they notice bullying at school and off campus. Students are trained in seven strategies for preventing and intervening safely when they notice mistreatment. Woodside High School trains 45 students each year to join the SSA Program. We meet every other week to discuss what we've noticed and to plan multicultural activities for the school.

KLEAR - KIDS LEARNING EMPATHY AND RESPECT

The KLEAR program promotes empathy and respect among students, parents, and staff in the Woodside High School community. Its focus is on eradicating language and behavior that promotes hate. The goal is to teach students why this language and behavior is not okay, and to create a common language of respect and empathy for all both at school and in the home.

KLEAR is an alternative to suspension program which requires students who are repeated offenders of the respect for all policy to attend a one time per week evening session of 2- 1/2 hours for three successive Thursday evenings within a month's time. During these sessions students and their parents learn experientially about the harmful impact of hate behavior and how to develop empathy and respect for others. The curriculum includes learning skills and tools for positive communication as well as anger and conflict management.

Some examples of the KLEAR related language and behavior that the staff identified and plans to work to curtail on campus are: racial, ethnic and gender/sexual slurs in English and Spanish; other name calling- those with disabilities, height/weight issues;

swearing; bullying; harassment.

KLEAR helps to create a more caring environment in which all students can succeed at Woodside High School.

If you have further questions or want to get involved, please contact the KLEAR coordinator, Gwen Sidley, at extension 8665.

KLEAR is funded by generous grants from the Woodside High School Foundation and The Hancock Family Foundation.

If you would like to join SOS, please complete the form below and we will invite you to the next training session for your program of interest.  Thank you for wanting to make a difference with your peers!