“I’m deeply passionate about reducing the stigma surrounding mental health in Indian Country, and in this role, I can be a consistent source of support for students while giving a voice to those who may not yet be able to speak up for themselves,” Peterson said.

When she began working there near the end of the last school year, she explained her role as someone who helps students with their feelings, friendships, and learning.

“It is my job to make sure you feel safe, happy, and able to learn,” she told the students. “I work with your teachers and parents/guardians to ensure you are receiving the best support to be successful at school. I focus on things like behavior, mental health, academics, and school systems.”

During her four-year graduate program, Peterson worked at six different schools ranging from high school to elementary school throughout San Diego County. Peterson said she always knew she would return home to serve her Tribal community.

“Being able to come back and work with and for my own relatives is one of the greatest blessings I could ask for,” she said. “In our culture, we are taught to take care of our relatives, and this work is my way of giving back to the community that raised me.”

Peterson is the first school psychologist at the preschool. Noli has had a contracted school psychologist who would come to provide specific services for certain students, but this is the first time one has been housed on campus.

“Working as a school psychologist across two schools allows me to experience the full range of my role, from conducting psychoeducational assessments at Noli to fostering social-emotional learning at the preschool,” she said. “Having the opportunity to work with two different age groups has been a truly rewarding experience.”

At the preschool most of her work is centered around developing social emotional skills whether that is emotional regulation skills, coping skills, conflict resolution, relationship building, and/or decision making.

“Our students are at the age where they are learning how to interact with peers and adults as well as learning new emotions and how to regulate those emotions in a healthy way,” Peterson said. “Early social emotional learning is an investment in your child’s emotional, social, and academic future. At both schools I collaborate with teachers to provide academic and behavioral interventions for those students who need additional support and are struggling in any of these areas.”

Peterson facilitates weekly SEL lessons with each class at the preschool. To decide which topics to focus on with each class, she consults with teachers to narrow down what areas of support they feel their students will benefit from most. She has implemented a few schoolwide mental health activities.

“We have done lessons on kindness, characteristics of a good friend, emotional regulation, and coping skills,” she said. “We recently had a kindness week where I facilitated an activity/lesson with each class every day of the week. Students participated in interactive activities that focused on kindness with friends, family, animals, and ourselves. I am currently working on starting an annual mental health fair at the preschool.”

At Noli, the majority of her role currently consists of conducting psychoeducational evaluations for special education. This includes consulting with teachers, parents/guardians, the special education teacher, and students. She also collaborates closely with the school counselor to implement mental health supports, activities, and social-emotional learning initiatives.

She is developing a series of workshops that focus on educating Tribal families about special education and their rights as parents/guardians. “My goal for these workshops is to provide a safe space for families who currently have students in special education or families who want to learn more about the process,” Peterson said.

She said students are always welcome to stop by her office at any time during the school day if they feel the need. At Noli, she works closely with the school counselor so if she is at the preschool when a student needs support at Noli, they are referred to the school counselor. She also receives referrals from teachers and parents when they have concerns about a student or believe additional support might be helpful.

Peterson graduated from San Diego State University in the School Psychology graduate program where she earned her Master’s degree in Counseling and her Educational Specialist in School Psychology. She was also a scholar and mentor on the SHPA (Supporting High-Intensity Mental Health Needs of Native and Indigenous Youth) project at SDSU. She was introduced to the field of School Psychology during the last year of her undergraduate at Cal State San Marcos.

“What really piqued my interest in the program was the SHPA grant which focused on mental health needs of Native and Indigenous youth,” she said. “School psychology wasn’t something I had planned on pursuing in the beginning, but it became a career that gave me the platform I needed to support our Native children.”

A school psychologist specializes in mental health and behavioral issues along with conducting psychoeducational assessments and developing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). School psychologists work with both general education and special education students but focus on students who need more intensive support by providing intervention or assessments when needed. Peterson said a big part of her job consists of collaborating with teachers, administration, school counselors, and families to help the students succeed at school.

“I am so grateful to have so much support from parents and families since starting at the preschool and Noli,” she said. “I have received positive feedback, especially from parents who have shared that they feel more comfortable with having a Tribal member and familiar face helping support their child at school.”

Peterson is deeply grateful to her Tribe for supporting her pursuit of higher education, an opportunity that helped her grow personally and professionally.

“Growing up, we were taught that when you take, you must also give back,” she said.
“Reciprocity is a core value that was deeply instilled in me, and it continues to guide the work I do today.”

National School Psychology Week is Nov. 3-7. This week is an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of school psychologists and raise awareness about the important role they play in supporting students’ mental health and academic success. 

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Supporters and critics of a Moreno Valley history teacher who was placed on leave after a profane anti-Trump rant in class clashed over his fate at Tuesday’s Moreno Valley Unified District board meeting.

The Valley View High School teacher called the president-elect a “rapist draft-dodging coward” during a lecture for his AP history students on Nov. 6. He told them Black and Latino voters didn’t support Kamala Harris because she has a “vagina and uterus,” and claimed that Latino voters who support Trump want to be white.

The teacher has been placed on administrative leave while the incident is under investigation, according to a Moreno Valley Unified School District spokesperson.

Tuesday’s board meeting reached a fever pitch as some parents demanded that he be fired, while multiple students asked the district to consider their teacher’s character and not judge his entire career on one incident.

“I believe that the way he approached it was a little unprofessional,” student Ezell Moreno said before the board meeting. “I believe that he had good faith, but is he going to be fired for one incident when he’s done so many good things throughout his time as a teacher?”

The school district did not identify the teacher and did not take any actions regarding his future as an educator. Students identified him as Maximiliano Perez, a history teacher who has participated in multiple school clubs, including the chess club. He could not be reached for comment.

In a recording of his lecture that was shared by a conservative commentator on X, Perez asked his students pointed questions about a second Trump presidency, but did not seem to invite a discourse as he railed against the once and future president.

“Can you end up with no human rights? Yes. Will it happen to you? Most likely not. Which is a good thing, but has Donald Trump quoted Hitler? Yes. Does he embody some of Hitler’s ideas? Yes,” he told his students in the video.

Five students expressed their support for Perez at the board meeting, describing him as a dedicated teacher who encourages independent thinking and cares deeply about the well-being of his students.

One student, Jailene Bailey, even credited him with saving her life by offering support when she was struggling with her mental health.

“Mr. Perez saved my life and helped me further pursue my education by telling me that I matter in the sea of thousands of students, and I believe that he has the power to help other students just as he helped me,” she said. “I really hope that in the future I will still be able to see him and give him the biggest smile and wave.”

But several parents and other adults in the Moreno Valley community said that Perez’s inappropriate and racially charged outburst merits serious disciplinary action.

“I’m here to complain about the teacher that had the vulgar political language,” said Oscar Avila. “I say you strip him, he can’t work with schools anymore, remove him of his duties.”

As a Latino, Avila said he was especially upset by Perez’s recorded comments telling Latino students that a lot of their fathers, uncles, and grandfathers “want to be white.”

Student Joel Mata acknowledged that Perez’s recent behavior “is not to be dismissed,” but asked school board members to focus on students’ testimony of his character.

Mata said that, counter to narratives being presented online, Perez does not force his beliefs on his students.

“‘I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, join your party and make it better,’ this is a direct quote from Mr. Perez, the so-called indoctrinator at our school,” said Mata.

Student Damian Ayonn said that Perez is an “essential figure for many students here, not just as an educator, but as a mentor, a supporter and a guide through some of the most challenging moments of our lives.”

He urged the school board to consider the “profound impact” that Perez has had on the Valley View community and realize that “his absence would leave a gap in our lives that no other teacher could fill.”

Kenneth Prado, a trustee in the neighboring Hemet Unified School District who was speaking in his capacity as an individual, said the students’ speeches didn’t change his opinion.

“I’ve heard students sit here and say how they admire him as a teacher,” said Prado. “That may be so, but when you’re in a position like that, you are held up to a bigger standard.”

Community member Fred Banuelos, who attended the meeting in a “Trump 2024” T-shirt, said that Perez’s outburst and use of profanity were unacceptable.

“There’s got to be consequences for things that you say,” he said. “I’m not sure if you should get fired, but … there needs to be some major consequences.”

Several dozen students walked out of class Tuesday morning in protest and asked the school district to reinstate their teacher, according to video from OnSceneTV.

“At the end of the speech, he offered everybody a hug or if they wanted to talk about it further,” student Devonee Casas said. “They twisted his narrative into believing something else.”

“I think this was taken completely out of context, and it made him look bad,” said student Jada Carroll, who was in class during the lecture. “I’m proud of our school for speaking up about this. It’s good to see that people truly do care.”

The post Moreno Valley Unified teacher’s fate uncertain following anti-Trump rant in classroom appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.