Cheerleaders chanted on the steps of Crawford High School on Monday to welcome students back to school.
“I’m pretty nervous,” said freshman Kira Quan. “But I’m also super excited because I like socializing a lot.”
Quan said she’s also looking forward to all the elective classes she’ll get to take in high school. Principal Reashon Villery said there are several new offerings at Crawford this year.
One is a PE program focusing on swim and water safety. Two summers ago, a Crawford student was celebrating his graduation at Mission Beach and drowned there.
“This program represents a significant step forward, as we transform a past tragedy into a triumph for our students,” Villery said.
A donor has also made it possible for the school to provide Muslim students with full-coverage swimsuits.
Another new program prepares students for careers as emergency medical technicians. Villery said students will learn CPR and other skills so they can work as first responders immediately out of high school.
“This is great for those students who don’t foresee themselves continuing eight to 12 years of medical graduate work,” she said.
Other changes are coming to the school’s Academy of Law and Justice, which offers classes, mentorship with local attorneys, and field trips to places like El Cajon Superior Court. Students can participate in the mock trial team and help mediate conflicts between their peers.
This year, Crawford also plans to launch a teen court program. Coordinator Ray Beattie stood in a classroom with a jury box, a judge’s bench and a podium.
“Say someone, a juvenile, is caught shoplifting,” he said. “Here we would have students as the jury, we would have an actual judge or an attorney up there, and the students get to ask the parents questions, the juvenile questions, and then they come up with consequences.”
This school year starts a week earlier than last year. The district said the new calendar allows the first semester to end before winter break, so students don’t have to worry about end-of-semester projects and exams during their time off.
