[UNFILTERED] Locust Grove Counselor Turned To Divine Intervention For Help

As part of its community journalism project called [UNFILTERED] with News 9, University of Oklahoma students are at the state Capitol Monday to cover the state teacher walkout.

Teachers from districts across the state descended upon the Capitol to rally for better classroom funding.

School counselors are, too.

Gaylord College of Journalism & Mass Communication student Pablo Angulo talked with Locust Grove counselor Blake Stephens about why he was rallying.

"Because of the budget cuts, we weren't able to fund another counselor, which we've always been able to do in the past. However, counselors are hard to find in the state of Oklahoma. So, we have a massive shortage of counselors as well," he said.

Stephens is a counselor at Locust Grove Upper Elementary.

He even turned to a request for divine intervention.

"I actually was asking the pastors in our community to pray for me so that I could be able to meet the needs of our students. It was an overwhelming task for myself, and it was actually, I was unable to do it in my own human way. So I had to have some divine intervention, which glory to God, it worked out," Stephens said.

"But our kids deserve much better than that. We shouldn't have to do that," he said.

Watch Stephens's full video below:

[UNFILTERED] is a partnership between News 9 and Mike Boettcher, a veteran journalist, News 9 alum and visiting professor at the University of Oklahoma. The goal of [UNFILTERED] is to provide the most thorough coverage possible of stories that matter to Oklahomans. We believe that a transparent, unfiltered approach to community journalism will embody the new era of digital storytelling.

We'd love to hear what you think: good, bad, or maybe you have an idea for a story in your community you'd like to tell. Email us at unfiltered@news9.net.