Preventive work in Širvintos Laurynas Stuoka – Gucevicius secondary school

In our school there is a group of students who raise serious problems for parents and teachers. They belong to the ‘risk’ group. These students are tend to miss the classes, swear, bully, smoke and drink alcohol. Drug problem does not exist in our school, but we are worried that soon we will face it because Sirvintos is only 50 km away from the capital Vilnius where drug problem is quite serious.

Prevention is our main task. Each class (from 5th up to 12th) elects the students responsible for preventive work. In addition, the school elects the students’ parliament which have a preventive group. One of the principal’s assistants organizes and supervises the work. Classmasters and the students make lists of the pupils who have already been at fault. In this way the ‘risk’ group is formed. The students who belong to it are constantly watched and talked to by the administration, the members of the students’ parliament or even the school’s counsil which consists of 5 teachers, 5 students and 5 parents.

Sometimes the students and their parents are reprimanded in written form and even get fines, we cooperate with the police. They come to discos, talk to the students and give lectures. Fortunately, there are no serious offenders in our school. We try to involve these pupils into extracurricular activities and different clubs. There are about 30 clubs, 3 folk and 2 modern dance groups and the art workshop.

810 students attend our school clubs, 37 go to the music school and 75 train in the sports school. Our school organizes various festivals, contests, parties and discos. In summer the students who belong to the ‘risk’ group go to summer camps and attend ‘Children’s Center’. The students have a possibility to talk to the school psychologist about their problems. We are glad that there are no serious problems concerning discipline and drugs in our school. We achieved this thanks to systematic and patient work in the sphere of prevention.