Aiming to provide more resources to combat student anxiety, the district is introducing “Calm Down Kits” into classrooms at the high school.
The kits are targeted at creating less stressful classroom environments.
Calm Down Kits are boxes or baskets containing resources that seek to help students who are experiencing moments of anxiety or high stress to cope whilst in class.
This includes physical destressors, such as fidget toys and other sensory items, as well as mental health resources such as booklets of coping strategies that students can take advantage of.
According to the New York Times, youth ADHD diagnosis rates have risen more than 39% since 2013.
District staff developer Susan Van Saun feels that the inclusion of these coping strategies may help tackle the changing needs reflected by this increase.
“This year, one of [the district’s] focus areas is on meeting the needs of today’s students,” Van Saun said, “and as with anything else, those needs evolve over time. So that’s the goal of including these coping strategies, to help be a little bit of an outlet before there’s any kind of explosion.”
Van Saun believes that the kits are a necessary reaction to the significantly different pressures today’s teens face when compared to those of previous generations, such as changing attitudes towards college.
“Think about the whole college application process for anyone who’s familiar with it. It’s awful,” Van Saun said. “Years ago, you were like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go to college. I’m going to apply to two schools.’ Now, kids are applying to 15 different schools, and the whole process has gotten a lot more stressful and competitive.”
Van Saun believes that as a result of this shift in attitude, being in school has become more stressful for many students
“Even when I was in school, there were maybe three AP classes to choose from,” Van Saun said. “Now compared to that there’s so many, and it’s not just the academics, it’s the feeling like ‘I have to be in 10 clubs, I have to do all these extracurriculars.’ There’s just a lot of stress on kids at the high school level that weren’t there years ago.”
Wellness teacher Christine Nensteil feels that getting students involved with mental health promotion at a younger level is vital to bridging the gap between adults and high schoolers.
“I think little kids still emulate big kids,” said Nenstiel, “so to have kids involved at the high school level will be super beneficial to ingraining these strategies from a younger age.”