In addition to all of the clubs, sports and class gatherings happening every week, a new kind of meeting comes to FHS—Officer Tom Liberty has been going from room to room during AAP to discuss certain issues occurring with young adults in the world today. Most recently, he’s touched upon topics such as sexting and underage drinking.
“When I accepted the position as the school officer, I met with Mr. [Timothy] Dadich and Mr. [Frank] Hernandez, and they actually gave me the leeway to come in and talk about whatever I wanted to talk about,” Liberty said. “We had this problem [with sexting] about six years ago, so I thought this was perfect to lead off with.”
Liberty believes that covering these topics with students will prevent certain tragedies from happening. He plans on speaking to every class about different issues eventually, and he has even made his way down the hill to the junior high to discuss these concerns.
“[The meetings are] going to be for the whole school. I just finished the sexting [presentations],” Liberty said. “I actually just went down and spoke with the eighth graders about a week ago on the same topic.”
Liberty even plans on meeting with the elementary students since he will “be here for the next four years,” giving him a lot of time to “come up with a lot of interesting topics to talk about.”
“The sexting one is the only [presentation] I plan on doing this year. However, next year I have some ‘stranger danger’ stuff I want to get out to younger kids,” Liberty said.
According to Liberty, they don’t call it ‘stranger danger’ anymore; they call it ‘violent intruder’ due to all of the incidents they’re having in schools nowadays. He said that those talks will be starting next year.
As for the rest of this year, he’s only focusing on the two main topics previously mentioned: sexting and underage drinking.
“Right now, I’m starting with the senior class talking about underage drinking. Prom season is coming up, and unfortunately, underage drinking and prom season seem to coexist together,” Liberty said.
Liberty believes that these meetings will be very effective and important for students to know and hopes that we will all take something away from them.
“It’s probably one of the most important things that I think that I can do here in this position,” Liberty said. “I enjoy being able to know that whenever you guys all leave here… that we’ve all had a chance to talk, and you guys know what’s out there.”