Asphyxiation games have been around for decades – and for some reason the brief euphoric high from lack of oxygen continues to intrigue teenagers. However, several publicized deaths over the past few years, as well as Internet sites like YouTube displaying the game in more threatening variations, are spurring a discussion in schools and among parents’ groups, guidance counselors and physicians. Many psychologists believe that this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed openly and aggressively.

Levi Draher has received national attention after sharing his near death experience. Click here to view a video of Draher’s talk about the deadly game.

In a New York Times article, 16-year-old Draher Casts Light on a Shadowy Game.

GERONIMO, Tex. – Levi Draher, 16, walked to the front of the Navarro High School gym in early March and picked up the microphone before a hushed audience of fellow teenagers.

“I died and came back,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

For the last few years, high school guidance counselors have been asked to address the self-abusing practice of cutting. Mostly believed to be a behavior displayed in disturbed or troubled teens, many colleges and universities are now reporting a culture of cutting on their campuses.

Cnn.com reports that, “nearly 1 in 5 students at two Ivy League schools say they have purposely injured themselves by cutting, burning or other methods, a disturbing phenomenon that psychologists say they are hearing about more often.”

Guidance counselors have been reporting increased numbers of cutting in colleges, high schools and middle schools across the nation.
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After months of high profile cases involving sexual predators searching for young victims on popular social networks, Myspace.com is fighting back.

Popular online social networking hub MySpace.com said Monday it will begin displaying public service ads aimed at educating its users, many of them teens, about the dangers posed by sexual predators on the Internet.

MySpace, a division of News Corp., enables computer users to meet any of more than 60 million members. Users put up profiles that are searchable and can include photos of themselves and such details as where they live and what music they like.

But MySpace’s features and popularity with teens has raised concerns with authorities across the nation. There have been scattered accounts of sexual predators targeting minors they met through the site.

Learn more about how to keep teens safe in wake of the online social networking explosion.

There was a time when sending students with learning disabilities off to college was unheard by most guidance counselors. That has changed and now 32 percent of learning disabled students are pursuing higher education.

The following article by Boston Globe correspondent, Kay Lazar, appeared online March 30.

The question is not whether Christine Logan will head off to college, but rather which passion she will pursue.

The Wakefield teenager became fascinated with forensics after getting hooked on the TV crime show ”CSI” and now thinks law enforcement might be the way to go. But Logan, 16, also is captivated by children — she is the most popular baby sitter on the block — and is considering a teaching career, too.

One factor is certain. Logan, who has dyslexia, will have to navigate a difficult path in her search for the perfect school. But she is determined.
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Public health officials have been warning us of a possible bird flu outbreak following the upcoming bird migration season. A strong push to prepare schools has taken center stage.

The nation’s schools, recognized incubators of respiratory diseases among children, are being told to plan for the possibility of an outbreak of bird flu.

Federal health leaders say it is not alarmist or premature for schools to make preparations, such as finding ways to teach kids even if they’ve all been sent home.

School boards and superintendents have gotten used to emergency planning for student violence, terrorism or severe weather. Pandemic preparation, though, is a new one.

They have a lot to think over, top government officials said Tuesday. Read the complete story on CNN.com.

When most television sitcoms and teen movies portray social outcasts, they usually show them excelling in school despite the public peer rejection they endure in the hallways and lunchrooms of America’s high schools. In reality, those teens are not excelling, and peer rejection is no laughing matter.

The Washington Post reports that researchers who followed 380 Midwestern children from the ages of 5 to 11 found that those who were chronically rejected by their classmates were more likely to withdraw from school activities and scored lower on standardized tests than their more popular peers.

“We’re talking about kids whose classmates don’t let them sit with them in the cafeteria,” said lead researcher Eric S. Buhs, an assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “This is what happens when a whole group demonstrates, ‘We don’t want you around.’ ”

Peer-group rejection, Buhs and his co-authors report in a study funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, starts as early as kindergarten. It appears to affect boys and girls equally. And it often triggers a vicious circle that can cause long-term psychological damage and impair a child’s academic performance.
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The stress to get a high score on the SAT is enough to drive any sane high school student crazy. SAT scores are used to determine a high school student’s readiness for college, and their likelihood for success. The scores that arrived in the mailbox, however, might not have been correct. High school guidance counselors should share this information with their parents and students.

According to a story published on CNN.com, about 4,000 students who took the main SAT college entrance exam last October received incorrectly low scores because of problems with the scanning of their answer sheets.
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The following article was taken from CNN.com. It ran February 7, 2006.

The percentage of public high school seniors passing at least one Advanced Placement test increased in nearly every state last year, but racial gaps remained, the College Board reported Tuesday.

More students took AP exams, more students passed them, and average scores were steady from 2004 to 2005.

“The quality of learning in AP classrooms has remained steady as schools have invited more students to take on the challenge of an AP course,” the College Board said in a statement.

In the nation’s public schools, 14.1 percent of the class of 2005 passed at least one AP test, up from 13.2 percent a year before. In 2000, 10.2 percent of high school seniors passed a test.
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As if students, teachers and administrators didn’t have enough tests to worry about, another has been added to the list. Students around the country will be able to gauge their technology literacy with the ICT Literacy Assessment.

According to an article on MSNBC.com, “the test’s initials stand for “Information and Communication Technology,” and a version is already used by some colleges. The nonprofit Educational Testing Service plans to announce details of a new version that some high school and first- and second-year college students will begin taking this spring.”

The reason for the tests is to determine if students are able to make use of all the information accessible through the web and other technologies. Test-takers may be asked to query a database, compose an e-mail based on their research, or seek information on the Internet and decide how reliable it is.
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A cover story in the USA Today revealed that first-year college students are by far the most at-risk among all college students for death or illness. Health and safety awareness can be the best defense for your high school seniors.

A USA TODAY analysis of 620 deaths of four-year college and university students since Jan. 1, 2000, finds that freshmen are uniquely vulnerable. They account for more than one-third of undergraduate deaths in the study, although they are only 24% of the undergraduates at those institutions, according to National Center for Education Statistics data analyzed by the American Council on Education for USA TODAY.

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