HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Hillsborough County School Board member Patti Rendon has partnered with Teen IMPACT to put on a series of forums for parents.
“We just have to do something. We really want parents to be partners with us in this educational process,” said Rendon.
“I felt very strongly that it’s time to make sure that we bring the parents back to the table. We want to make sure parents feel included and welcome in our schools, to really help them in developing good healthy relationships with their child,” she added.
Rendon told ABC Action News that the idea for this started after the district noticed an increase in certain behaviors once kids came back to class post-pandemic.
The first forum is Monday, Sept. 23, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Middleton High School.
“The goal is that we are going to, in this particular one, be discussing how can you manage with your child, managing risky behaviors. And then how can you develop good healthy relationships with your child moving forward, with understanding the environment and the culture they live in,” said Rendon.
This was planned before the recent uptick in school shooting threats, but Rendon believes the conversation goes hand-in-hand.
“It really ties in directly. It’s all about parents coming together with their children, developing healthy relationships, understanding the world that they’re living in, the environment that they’re coming from,” said Rendon.
She’ll use this opportunity to encourage parents to be more aware of what their kids are doing.
“With so many of these school threats, you know, parents, they own the phones. They own what their child is doing these threats on, where this communication is coming from. And so we really want parents to understand the culture and the environment in which children are living today, in this community,” said Rendon.
Monday’s forum at Middleton will be the first of about a dozen others over the course of the school year, all across the district.
“We’re just really excited to have parents come to the table and invite them to have a good heart-to-heart discussion and help them with some of the things that they’re struggling with right now,” said Rendon.
