{"id":1236,"date":"2016-12-05T12:58:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T17:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2016-12-05T12:58:39","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T17:58:39","slug":"no-more-nightmares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=1236","title":{"rendered":"No more nightmares"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Landon Hudson & Emily Bruch<\/strong>
\nThe Bucs’ Blade
\nGrand Haven HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 1, News Writing
\nNews Analysis<\/p>\n

Principal Tracy Wilson remembers when the police officer appeared at the doors of the former Grand Haven Senior High School gym. The strong-willed coach was not about to leave her volleyball girls during an important practice.<\/p>\n

She remembers resisting his pleas to follow him outside.<\/p>\n

She remembers assistant principal Mike Roberson urging her to leave the building- no was not an option.<\/p>\n

She remembers reluctantly walking with the officer towards the back of the school, as she stood in the back stairwell, all anxious thoughts in her head were suddenly silenced by her high-pitched scream as she fell to her knees.<\/p>\n

She knew what he was going to say.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s father, who had been battling depression for multiple years, had passed away.<\/p>\n

A suicide the family was not prepared for took the life of her dad and in the process tore them apart. A nightmare they hoped would never become reality. From that day on, Wilson was determined to help others struggling with depression so that their family would never feel the pain hers did.<\/p>\n

Nearly 15 years later, the topic of suicide reemerged when a GHHS student took their own life. The first ripple in what was to sadly become the wave. In the past year, the school has lost three students to suicide. This is a trend Wilson and her team are dedicated to fighting and destroying.<\/p>\n

Wilson began brainstorming ways to fulfill the emotional needs of her students, the first inkling of what would later turn into a district-wide campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cMental health has been a really big part of who I am for a great number of years, for
\npersonal influence and personal reasons,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cHere as a professional, I have seen and been witness to the enormous amount of emotional needs that our students have come to the table with each school year. In my 27 years as an employee, and as a teacher, a coach, an administrator, I have seen that emotional need grow and I\u2019ve seen it grow at an astronomical rate in the last five to six years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through extensive trainings and the creation of a mental health initiative, Wilson is ready to take on what has been pushed under the rug for so long.<\/p>\n

The gears for her campaign started turning in 2011, after a student died by suicide when Wilson was an assistant principal. The following school year, she became building principal and started investigating programs that could meet the needs of struggling students.<\/p>\n

In Spring 2012, Wilson brought in a team from the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan (MHFWM) to speak to student senate advisors, social workers, central office workers, and other members from around the district to discuss mental health and curriculum opportunities.<\/p>\n

Wilson and her team decided they did not want to start a new mental health program every year, but they wanted something long-lasting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all of those mandates (from the state) and then we have this mental health curriculum need,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThat\u2019s not part of reading, writing, math, and
\narithmetic, and so you have to find a way to imbed that with what you do already, without impeding the instructional process that has to happen for the account-ability system. In my mind, which is only my opinion, it\u2019s totally backwards. Because if we don\u2019t take care of our students minds and our students hearts, we\u2019re never going to take care of the academic part.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Wilson\u2019s immediate goals is to have all district staff members trained by a program called Question Persuade Refer (QPR). Wilson stated that it is the CPR training of mental health, and it teaches people how to look for warning signs and prevent suicides.<\/p>\n

Wilson thought this training program was too heavy, and a different model would be needed for the student body.<\/p>\n

Originally, plans were made to provide all freshmen with the Live Laugh Love curriculum starting next school year. But due to the immediate need for mental sup-port, the school partnered up with the West Michigan Mental Health Foundation to give all students grades 9 through 12 a condensed version of this curriculum in March.<\/p>\n

The catalyst to put this campaign in action by the end of this school year was the death of a freshman last October and the death of a student\u2019s parent.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know what that feels like in your gut and in your heart when you have been working so hard to get in front of it,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to step away from that and not take that personally. I understand that we as a school community cannot save everybody, but by God we\u2019re going to do our best to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the initiative will eventually be district-wide, the mental health team thought the high school was the best place to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdolescence is typically when mental health issues start to rear their heads,\u201d social worker Emily Berry said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we thought your population was in need first.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the program coordinator for the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan Kandice Sloop, the goal of the Live Laugh Love curriculum is to educate students on the importance of having good mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program educates students on mental health and get students to start talking about their mental health, how they think, act and feel,\u201d Sloop said. \u201cMental illnesses
\nare just as important as physical illnesses, this program aims to de-crease the stigma associated around mental illnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are four sections that come with the program. The first lesson deals with tearing down the stigma that is often associated with mental disorders. The second aims to educate students and staff on looking for warning signs of depression. The next step specifies how to prevent suicides and help students dealing with self-harm. Lastly, risk and protective factors cover where to receive support for mental conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen a significant increase in students dealing with mental health issues, we want to help our students and we feel you guys are asking for that education and asking for that help,\u201d Berry said. \u201cThe administration is listening and realizing it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students will take a test before and after they are given the curriculum to determine what they\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, parts of the Live Laugh Love program will be used in school improvement lessons throughout the year. The hope is that the lessons will be sustainable, and students will have tools not just for high school but for life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a one-and-done,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cYou can\u2019t learn everything and fix everything by having one conversation or one lesson. This has to be more than just a general surface-scratching of awareness. We\u2019re going to have to dig below the surface to make sure that kids know it\u2019s okay to say \u2018I need help.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Landon Hudson & Emily Bruch The Bucs’ Blade Grand Haven HS 1st Place Division 1, News Writing News Analysis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[50,4],"tags":[135,20],"class_list":["post-1236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-newsstory","category-nw","tag-2015-16","tag-division1","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Riley Anson","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=4"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-jW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}