Keynote Speakers

Opening Keynote

Amir Whitaker, Policy Attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Dr. Whitaker, known for his advocacy work to bring attention to student racial disparity and the overuse of punitive measures to address school discipline, will share about the joint CASC/ACLU campaign to increase the number of school counselors working in California schools. Amir was also the lead author of ACLU’s Cops and No Counselors that found millions of students are enrolled in schools where police are prioritized over school-based mental health support.

Lunch Keynote

Dr. Carolyn Stone

School Counselors:  Negotiating the Legal and Ethical Complications of Working with Minors in Schools

The school environment poses competing interests between a student’s need for confidentiality and the legal rights of parents as established by the U.S. Supreme Court to be the guiding voice in their children lives in value-laden issues. Participants will develop an ethical decision-making framework for analyzing and resolving ethical issues through the application of ASCA ethical codes, case and statutory law, school board rules, and community standards. Participants will be given the opportunity to increase their understanding of the complexities of respecting a minor’s right to confidentiality, to develop a sensitivity to the need to consider their actions in context of each situation for each individual student, and to understand the rights of parents. 

Dr. Carolyn Stone has worked in education for more than 40 years. She is currently at the University of North Florida where she teaches and researches on legal and ethical issues, as well as other pertinent issues related to the field of school counseling.  Prior to becoming a counselor educator in 1995, Carolyn spent 22 years with the Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville, Florida where she served as a middle school teacher, elementary and high school counselor and Supervisor of Guidance for 225 counselors.  Carolyn was the 2006 President of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and she is now in her 17th year as ASCA’s Ethics Chair.  She has written the only book exclusively devoted to legal and ethical matters affecting school counselors.