Supporting our students as administrators, teachers and parents is our focus this week as we sit down with Dr. Barzanna White, Caddo Parish District School Psychologist.

Here are the questions I asked:

0:41 1. You are the Caddo Parish District School Psychologist. In your role, you focus on student supports, positive school climates, suicide prevention, bullying prevention and safe and drug free schools. You are also the lead responder for all crises in the district.

I want to get into a number of different areas of your expertise today but let’s start here.

In speaking about cyberbullying, you once said that certain conversations need to take place between a parent and a child before the child is ever allowed to enter cyberspace. Can you talk some about what you recommend parents explain in these early conversations? And are there other precautions that you suggest parents take as their kids become users of social media and participants in cyberspace?

8:47 2. You were in your role with Caddo Parish Schools during COVID. We have spoken numerous times on this podcast about the negative impact that COVID had on our school-aged kids and the challenges it posed for our students and teachers. Because I have heard you speak about this some in the past, what are some of the positive things that came out of COVID?

15:08 3. We spoke about the conversations that you recommend parents have with their children in an effort to reduce or prevent cyberbullying. What are some other things our parents can do in the home to help our schools and teachers?

17:39 4. You once said, “It always becomes the balance in education. How much mental health should we provide and still be an academic learning community?”

If you could, briefly talk about some of the mental health initiatives that have taken place in Caddo Schools in the last 10 or so years and how you think about this balance between mental health and academic learning.