A deeper look into Freedom´s ¨Take What You Need, Give What You Can¨ board

Isabelle Jabbour

Journalism student

  While most Freedom High School staff members offer a helping hand or emotional support to their students, one teacher has gone above and beyond to show the students of this school one thing, that they are not alone.  

  The “Take what you need, give what you can” board is located outside Mr. Parra’s room, room 230, and gives students the opportunity to anonymously leave positive messages to encourage others who might be having a tough time. After previewing the bullying video, Parra came to the conclusion that no child should feel want to do that and decided to take action to spread awareness towards the students of Freedom. By doing this, his goal was to show students that they are not alone and they have support from their friends and other students in Freedom.

  The board’s objective is to decrease the stigma of selfishness within society, and to promote a helping hand to anyone who needs it.

  “We often times are very much focused on ourselves, and I think for anybody at any time, it´s good to know that you´re not the only one who feels this way, and there are people out there willing to help get you into a better spot,¨ said Parra.

  Since the board went up, Parra said he has seen the board gain support from lots of students, and has seen messages being posted and taken everyday. While the board is able to offer a helping hand to students, Parra wants to use it to help create a positive experience for everyone at Freedom.

  “We all have bad days at some point, we all could use help at some point, so let’s do that for each other,” said Parra.

  Along with gaining support from students about the board, Parra also gained support from other staff members who would promote the board to their classes and participate themselves. However, because the board is fairly new, Parra is working on making sure it stays up all year around while trying to branch out to other bulletin boards outside of other classrooms.

“I think that would be an awesome idea because there´s other boards throughout the school that aren´t being used, and if there´s something not being used, let´s use it,¨” said Parra.

With this new idea of promoting a helping hand, Parra hopes the board stays up next school year as well to help students realize that it is okay to have bad days and ask for help.

Photo credit: Isabelle Jabbour