LYNN — The Lynn school district received a grant of $60,000 last Wednesday that Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler said will help provide more support for mental health, citing the addition of social workers to the schools.
During the school committee meeting on Thursday, school committee member Brian Castellanos presented a letter on behalf of Breed middle school students, stating the importance of updating and implementing a better mental health curriculum.
Students at Breed participated in civic engagement courses this year, and one of Mrs. Jenny Winter’s eighth grade classes focused on mental health, including how the pandemic has affected this topic.
The students conducted studies, did research, and talked to students to create a Powerpoint presentation that discusses the effects of mental health and its strong presence in middle and high school students.
At the beginning of June, Castellanos and former Lynn English basketball coach Antonio Anderson were invited to Winter’s class to hear this PowerPoint presentation and to discuss their own personal experiences regarding mental health.
The students wrote a letter to the school committee asking for the curriculum to be updated and for more resources to be put towards mental health awareness and support.
“This is something that hit me deeply growing up and I felt compelled to activate those students’ voices and to deliver a message that they wrote,” Castellanos said.
In the letter, the students wrote how the curriculum for mental health in MA was last updated in 1999, and they are looking for ways to fix this dilemma.
“Many people struggle with mental health issues. Many of these issues have been brought to light due to the pandemic,” the students wrote. “It is more important than ever that we advocate for an updated curriculum that includes strategies to identify mental health issues, cyber bullying, and internet safety. We are asking you, the School Committee, to implement a curriculum that will improve students abilities to deal with mental health issues. In addition, the Lynn Public Schools’ (LPS) website should include up-to-date social work information resources for families who have a member struggling with mental health.”
Tutwiler said the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education hasn’t released any standards, but that LPS is working on this initiative. He said the fiscal year budget for 2022 represents clinical support that the district has been “anxiously waiting for.”
As the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines allow for the country to begin to reopen, Castellanos said the mental health damages from the pandemic will begin to show, and the schools need to be ready to provide support for that.
“This is so vital for us to really take it seriously,” Castellanos said. “The wrath of mental health is upon us. We are in the middle of really tough transitions.”
He said mental health struggles often go unseen, so “it’s really important that we have a lens of trauma informed practices and best practices to prevent mental health damage.”
School committee member Michael Satterwhite thanked the students for their hard work and dedication to this important matter, and said the ideas that came from students during a civic day were “great.”
One of these ideas, he said, was putting a “1-800” number for mental health on student’s identification cards, which they are required to wear around their necks.
“Mental health is something that many kids deal with,” Satterwhite said. “It was never really addressed, so you kind of felt like you were on the outside of things. I agree with Brian to push for the mental health curriculum.”
The school committee agreed to continue discussing changes and improvements that can be made in the district regarding mental health and thanked the Breed students for making this a priority and bringing it to their attention in Thursday night’s meeting.
Tutwiler said the 2021-22 school year will see more resources aimed towards mental health support.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected]
