Laguna School Board Sees Successes Outside the Classroom

The Laguna Beach Unified School District board put its focus on success stories at its meeting this week.

Celestina De Leon, a Laguna High senior, was honored by the board. De Leon has a disability that limits her movement; nevertheless, she applied to attend the California Youth Leadership Forum last summer with 60 other students.

“I felt comforted to know that I wasn’t the only one that felt the way I did with my disability,” she said. Now she plans to lend a hand to local schools and motivate other disabled students through her experience at the forum.

Science Camp

Also during the meeting, the board watched a video presentation of the Catalina Island Science Camp, a camp that not only gave Thurston Middle School students a chance to take part in environmental-science experiments, but also helped them bond with new friends.

It was a reminder "that this is another huge benchmark of experience" for the students, said social studies teacher Carl Nelson, who headed the camp with Assistant Principal Mike Modeer.

Cyberbullying

Near the end of the meeting, during a discussion of cyberbullying, board clerk Betsy Jenkins said the early-prevention efforts at one school have borne fruit. “The kids at El Moro have been trained to be brought up to give respect to one another,” said Jenkins.

—By Janina Paragele