Dear JES Family and Friends,

Thank you to our JES PTO and the parent and student volunteers who worked on Project Linus! We have thirty seven fleece blankets which will be donated to the project and be dispersed to local hospitals. These blankets "provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets...lovingly created by volunteer blanketeers." Those blanketeers are us - JES DRAGON Family!

A Message from the CISD Counselors

Dear Carroll ISD families,
In the last few days, there has been significant national media coverage about a disturbing internet challenge known as “The Momo Challenge.”  CISD has received a number of calls from parents after seeing or hearing about Momo Challenge posts on social media. Please know that we have not had any instances of this happening at school or on school devices.

Although this appears to be more fear than fact and most trusted sources are calling it a hoax, due to the concerns related to this challenge, we are sharing this information with you as you may want to talk with your child.

Allegedly, Momo targets young children through various online apps (e.g. YouTube, Minecraft, WhatsApp, etc.), and encourages them to complete a series of increasingly bizarre and dangerous tasks from watching a horror movie to engaging in self-harm to taking their own lives. According to national news reports, children as young as 6 years old have heard of the “Momo” challenge, which is similar to the “Slender Man” and “The Blue Whale” challenges in years past.

We encourage parents to have intentional conversations with them about what they encounter online on their personal devices. Please consider age appropriateness and exposure from older siblings or friends. Let them know that if they see scary things pop up on phones, tablets, or computers that they should reach out to a parent, teacher, school counselor, or principal. Remind them to block unknown numbers asking them to play. Students should have an expectation that you will be monitoring their photos, conversations, and social media.

The following resources may be helpful in helping our young learners navigate the internet, as well as tools for parents in a digital age.

Family Online Safety Institute: 

https://www.fosi.org/good-digital-parenting

 Creating a Family Media Plan (American Academy of Pediatrics): https://www.healthychildren.org/English/media/Pages/default.aspx

 Teaching Kids About Internet Safety (GCFLearnFree.org)

https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/internetsafetyforkids/teaching-kids-about-internet-safety/1/

 Protecting Kids Online (Federal Trade Commission)

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/topics/protecting-kids-online

As always, if you have questions or concerns, please email or call your campus principal or the campus counselor.

INDIVIDUALITY - March Character Trait
We will discussing Discovering who you are meant to be so you can make a difference. Check out the career assessment for kids in the Family Ezine you received from your classroom teacher.

As always, if I can help in any way please contact me at Elizabeth.Johnston@southlakecarroll.edu or 817 949 4500.

Kindest regards,

Ziba Johnston