OOLOGAH, Okla. — Two Green Country organizations are stepping in fill a new need.
When budget cuts forced many Oklahoma schools to eliminate life skills classes, "Light of Hope" and "Operation Aware" teamed up to make sure students still learn those important lessons.
It’s an eight-week educational class touching on crucial topics like bullying, suicide and drug awareness, internet safety, how to have healthy relationships and making informed decisions.
“I feel like there might be some students among me that do not know about these certain things or they haven’t been taught it at home," said seventh grader Ava Penner. "So it’s good to have someone come in and teach them so they don’t go down the wrong path.”
When thousands of dollars were cut from school budgets, this type of education was the first to go.
Founder and CEO of "Light of Hope," Layla Freeman, is working with "Operation Aware" of Oklahoma, paying to bring in certified instructors to the classroom.
So when students are going through tough times, these classes will help them learn know how to handle them.
"You can either get the education from a certified instructor and from people who have true knowledge of what we need to do and how these drugs affect our bodies or these kids are going to get the education out on the playground or out in the parking lot," said Freeman.
Nicole Mader is a parent at Oologah middle school and said she talks with her daughter about life choices, but she believes children need more than just a parent to talk confide in.
“You want to make sure that they’re hearing it from multiple point of views and not just, ‘Oh, this is my parent saying this is what I should be doing,’ but someone who has educated answers and answer questions without a bias," said Mader.
The students will learn a new topic each week until the class is complete.
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