PAMPA, TEXAS -- Pampa High School says it's the only school in the nation that's using a new profiling program. It's designed to help students and faculty communicate better. It's a program that famous author Dan Korem helped the school with. His latest book focuses on training people to adjust to other's behavioral profile, in hopes of keeping catastrophic acts from happening in schools like the Columbine incident. Pronews 7 highlights that program in this week's Region 16 Spotlight Education report.
"You may have some students or you may have individuals who have the potential to be random actors and this all sparked from the Columbine incident and school violence since then. And so it was something that we wanted to do be proactive in. We haven't had any threats or problems here but we don't want that to be the case," said Tanya Larkin, Principal at Pampa High School
It's a program that teachers, faculty, and students have benefited from. Learning to read people, adjust to their moods, and reach out. And with the number of teen suicides at an all time high, students are reaching out to their peers.
"There's many losses just because of what they're struggling with and basically if they have at least one friend that really cares about them, then that whole situation could just flip around and it could never happen," said Steven Marrufo, Senior at Pampa High School.
After going through the profiling program, Steven and several others have started a group called, "Leading by Examples" and they're doing just that.
"It lets me know they actually want people in their group and they really do care no matter if am an athlete or just a normal person which is pretty cool," said Trevor Smith, Junior at Pampa High School.
All in all, they say the profiling program has changed their school for the better.
"The hall ways are a lot funner, they really are. It's to the point where nobody's intimated by anyone anymore. You have seniors going up to freshman talking. You have guys from different groups being friends now and that's something we didn't see a lot before now," said Jonathan Polasek, Senior at Pampa High School.
Since Pampa High School is the first and only school to use this profiling program, they are taking detailed notes and surveys. And who knows, it may be coming to a school near you.
