Thomas Timberwolves
Community Newsletter - Resources & Reminders 9/8/19
Dear Parents and Guardians,
As we move into our 12th day of school, we want you to know that we are loving your children! Each student, in their own unique way, brings great PRIDE to our PACK! It is an honor to support your children and your family during these middle school years. That said, throughout the school year we will share various resources and reminders with you. We hope you'll find the items in this Thomas Community Newsletter helpful.
We look forward to seeing you this week at the following events:
- Tuesday, 9/10/19: PTA Enrichment Festival 6pm - Commons (Families welcome!) & PTA Meeting 7pm - LMC
- Thursday, 9/12/19: 7th & 8th Gr. Curriculum Night 7pm & Meet the Principals 6:45pm - Gym (*Adults only please.)
Thank you!
Greg, Nick, & Lori
Student Cell Phone Expectations, Reminders, and Resources
School phones may be used by students who have adult permission. Cell phones may be brought on school property under the following rules and regulations:
Cell phones are not to be used during school hours unless with adult permission. This includes calling parents due to illness, requesting items to be dropped off, etc.
In general, cell phones are to be turned off before reporting to homeroom, kept out of sight and stored in the students’ lockers, and not turned back on until the dismissal bell rings. Cell phones are not permitted in bathrooms or locker rooms.
Permission must be gained before taking photos or videos of other people. Sharing pictures or videos without permission of individuals in the photos is not permitted.
The school is not responsible for lost or stolen cell phones. If a cell phone is stolen or damaged, the district will not repair or replace it.
Families should carefully review the district handbook for additional cell phone usage guidelines.
Possession of a cell phone at school is a privilege that may be forfeited by any student who fails to abide by the terms of the guidelines.
Wearable devices should be used for timekeeping purposes only and not for cellular communication with others.
Thomas Middle School has the following procedures for students who violate our school policy of not having/using their phones unless with staff permission.
First Offense: Cell phone is taken from student, turned into the office to administration for documentation purposes, and returned to the student at the end of the school day.
Second Offense: Cell phone is taken from student, turned into office to administration for documentation purposes, and will be returned to a parent.
Third Offense: Cell phone is taken from student, turned into office to administration for documentation purposes, and will be returned to a parent. Student may lose the privilege to use a cell phone at school for a specific period of time or the remainder of the school year.
Additional disciplinary action will be imposed, if deemed necessary, especially per the District 25 Parent/Student Handbook.
If a student uses a cell phone for an unlawful purpose, he or she will be subject to disciplinary action according to the District 25 and school’s discipline guidelines and possible police notification.
For the last two school years, District 25 has partnered with Dr. Devorah Heitner to help educate our community on raising digital natives. Here is a link to her website and a blog she wrote on 6 Truths About Parenting Tweens in the Digitial Age.
Community Resources for Support
The Link Together organization is dedicated to promoting healthy youth, families, and communities by decreasing teen alcohol and drug use in Wheeling Township. Link does this through education, advocacy, and access to community resources, and policy awareness, implementation, and change. The Thomas DEN Club is was born out of Link Together Human Performance Project. Link Together community meetings are held monthly.
OMNI Youth Services offers individual, family and group counseling for youth encountering emotional and behavioral difficulties. They believe encouraging adolescents to learn through their actions is the best way to make a positive change in their lives. Their experiential therapy treatment approach offers hands-on challenges and connects learning experience with the development of skills for life.
Our counseling services include:
- Diagnostic and Assessment Services: OMNI licensed professional staff offer a comprehensive assessment and provide clinical diagnosis and individualized treatment planning for youth and their family.
- Crisis Intervention Services: Professional staff are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for crisis intervention responses to adolescent-related emergency situations. We provide immediate response to crisis calls from police, schools, clients or families seeking immediate assistance with adolescent or family-related problems. The focus of this service is family stabilization.
- Critical Incidence Services: OMNI provides professional staff for consultation and response to communities with community-wide crisis situations that have substantially impacted the community.
Counseling Groups:
- GAP (Girls After School Program) offers young women creative and exciting structured activities that promote positive self-image, teamwork and leadership opportunities.
- SPARCS (Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress) teaches coping skills to adolescents who may be facing challenges in different areas of their lives due to stress.
- RESPONSE is for youth facing community, drug, or alcohol-related violations and/or situations who want to recognize and apply positive decision-making and goal-setting skills.
- Seven Challenges® helps substance-abusing and substance-dependent adolescents become motivated to commit to change and address co-occurring life skill deficits, situational problems and psychological problems.
- Juvenile Justice Groups include Crossroads, Peer Jury and Gang Prevention/Intervention. These programs help youth develop emotional and social skills and make better life choices by emphasizing accountability, the reconciliation of past wrongs and community safety.
- School-Based Groups address both prevention and intervention of areas such as bullying, gang involvement, suicide and substance use/abuse, parenting adolescents, social skills and the transition to high school.
- Multi-Family Group: Anger can be a signal that something in our life needs to change. One out of five Americans has an emotion management problem. The problem is not anger, a natural human emotion, but rather the mismanagement of anger. Emotion Management is designed to help male adolescents and their families eliminate aggression and suppression. Behaviors and emotions are often thought of being out of a person’s control. Participants will learn how they choose to view a situation and control their emotional response.
Need to know information on Vaping & E-Cigarettes
Thomas Middle School
Email: tmsadmin@sd25.org
Website: https://www.sd25.org/Domain/9
Location: 1430 N Belmont Ave, Arlington Heights, IL, United States
Phone: 847.398.4260
Twitter: @AHSD25Thomas