The school partnered with The Jed Foundation (JED) to host training in mental health awareness and help-seeking for sophomores, juniors, seniors and faculty. JED is a nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention for teens and young adults and has partnered with the school since 2023.
The trainings were recommended by the JED Foundation as part of their review of the school’s suicide prevention practices. A survey conducted by JED found promoting help-seeking behavior and recognizing warning signs to be the biggest areas for improvement within the school.
The training aimed to help participants recognize signs of well-being, stress and distress as well as teach strategies for mental health check-ins. It also focused on setting boundaries when supporting peers, and introduced participants to mental health resources available at the school, local and national levels. During the training, students and faculty engaged in small group conversations discussing scenarios created by other students.
Director of Wellness Marci Reichert said it is important to acknowledge deeper factors that influence mental health.
“When you look at mental health in general, a lot of people think just giving people information and telling them all about suicide, depression and anxiety can actually change behavior,” Reichert said. That’s actually not true. It’s all these underlying factors that impact behavior change.”
Reichert said she hopes the training will serve as a foundation for ongoing discussions and awareness about mental health.
“The training will be a starting point to start a conversation and to normalize that everybody has mental health that they have to address,” Reichert said. “We recognize that change is slow. I would frame this as a first step to hopefully effective programming in the future that leads to more positive change in the community.”
Mel Ho ’25 said JED training helped educate her and taught her methods to support others that she did not know previously.
“I learned a lot about recognizing signs of distress and the different ways to help others if I notice them struggling,” Ho said. “The training raised more awareness about mental health at school and how we can address that moving forward.”
Counselor Michelle Bracken said the training focused on improving communication between students regarding mental health.
“We know that teens talk to teens before they talk to adults,” Bracken said. “So educating students about how to talk about safety issues like suicide with a classmate could help make a difference in a young person’s life.”
