Clever Counseling Connection

Hello Clever Bluejay Family!

The Clever School District is excited to celebrating Red Ribbon Week® again this year! The 2024 theme is: Life Is A Movie, Film Drug Free. At school, students will engage in activities that promote a drug free and healthy lifestyle . Please partner with us and discuss this message at home, at the dinner table, at family outings, and with friends and extended family.

Here are just a few reasons why we take time each year to prioritize Red Ribbon Week:

• Red Ribbon Week® is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the nation. We are excited to continue to be a part of it!
• Children of parents who talk to their teens regularly about drugs are 42% less likely to use drugs than those who don't.
• Drug use alters the chemistry of the brain. The longer drugs are use, the more damage is done.
• According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, 2021 Missouri statistics show that more high school students vaped (19%) than adults smoked (17%).

Clever Schools wants to be part of the solution! Our Red Ribbon Week activities strive to provide age-appropriate information to help students make safe and healthy choices now and in the future.

If you have any questions throughout this process, please don't hesitate to reach out to your child's grade level counselor.

We are here for you!

The Clever Counseling Department

In addition to our Vaping Prevention Curriculum, our 8th grade students will also be participating in lessons designed specifically for Middle Schoolers about the growing dangers of Fentanyl. In the curriculum developed and shared by Natural High, students will learn "facts about fake prescription pills. The DEA seized 79+ million fake prescription pills in 2023, and they found that 7 in 10 pills were laced with lethal amounts of fentanyl (aka "fentapills")...Students will review a short educational video and/or information sheet on the risks of fentanyl and take a quiz on the life-saving facts". For additional information, please visit Natural High or view the 6-minute Natural High PSA below.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, feeling overwhelmed or not sure where to turn for help, you can call, text or chat 988 to reach a trained crisis specialist 24/7.

The Clever School District is proud to continue our partnership with Burrell Behavioral Health School-Based Services to provide additional resources and support to our Clever Community.

What does that mean for Clever Schools and our students?

School-Based Services were created as an innovative approach to providing rapid access to care in the school setting. They have developed formalized processes for school mental health programs including onsite behavioral health providers through a collaborative team approach. Providers also assist in linking enrolled students to services outside of the school as needed. It has been proven that integration eliminates barriers to care and provides additional resources for school staff and families. We work directly with students, families and educators onsite in a few different ways. We provide School-Based Support Specialists and Clinicians within schools to offer individual and group services. We are also available for telehealth meetings if they make sense for your district. We strive to be creative and develop flexible arrangements to meet a variety of needs.

For more information, please visit the website or reach out to your student's school counselor.

We have had the wonderful opportunity to partner with Candace Burch, LPC with Purple Elephant Therapy Services. She comes to Clever several times a week to provide therapy services to our students at office spaces set up for her on each of our campuses. Candace is able to provide her services during the school day to eliminate the need for transportation. She is able to bill with private insurance, Medicaid or accept self-pay. If you are interested in learning more about this service, please contact her at purpleelephanttherapyservices@gmail.com or your student's school counselor.

Brittany Randall

School Counselor

Email: randallb@cleverbluejays.org
Phone: 417-743-4810

DaLynn Twigg

School Counselor

Email: twiggd@cleverbluejays.org
Phone: 417-743-4815

Lindsey Casey

School Counselor

Email: caseyl@cleverbluejays.org
Phone: 417-743-4820

Melissa Kirkbride

School Counselor

Email: kirkbridem@cleverbluejays.org
Phone: 417-743-4830

Rebecca Waisner

School Counselor

Email: waisnerr@cleverbluejays.org
Phone: 417-743-4830