MM_061517

8 | June 15, 2017 | The Mokena Messenger news
mokenamessenger.com
D159 addresses emotional, mental health
New law, learning
standards boost
school programs
Amanda Stoll, Assistant Editor
In accordance with Ann
Marie’s Law, passed last
August by the State of Illinois,
Mokena Junior High
School recently had a presentation
and speaker focusing
on youth suicide
awareness and prevention.
“We’ve always done
some sort of suicide prevention
every year — it’s either
been a speaker or some part
of the health class — but
this year, with the advent of
Ann Marie’s Law, we wanted
to formalize it a little bit
more, so we brought in the
Ann Marie Foundation,”
said Mike Rolinitis, who
has been the principal at
Mokena Junior High School
for eight years.
He said the State policy
has caused the district to
delve deeper with its suicide
prevention program.
While the suicide prevention
education will continue
to be done with students in
seventh and eighth grade,
Eileen Parente, director of
student services, said the
topic fits into the district’s
larger-scale implementation
of social and emotional
learning standards for students
in all grades.
The SEL curriculum from
the Illinois State Board of
Education focuses on developing
skills like decisionmaking,
managing emotions
and interpersonal skills, and
will also address topics like
bullying and stereotypes. In
addition to being integrated
into different parts of their
curriculum, students will
have an advisory period at
the end of each day where
they will focus on social
and emotional lessons.
“The better social-emotional
standards you have
for your kids, the better
well-adjusted they are, [so]
they can handle some of the
things — the depression,
the anxiety, the bullying,
that kind of stuff,” Rolinitis
said.
“We haven’t had a lot
of discipline problems,
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“If you go back even just 10 years,
kids could get away from things
[like bullying]. ... They can’t get
away from it now. It’s 24/7.”
Mike Rolinitis - Mokena Junior High School
principal, on how internet connectivity has affected
the difficulties of adolescence
but we’ve got kids that are
struggling emotionally, so
we want to be able to address
that.”
Half a dozen administrators
and teachers attended
a mental health first aid
training this year along with
the school social worker.
Parente said that all of the
school psychologists in the
district have attended the
training as well.
“We’re not mental health
professionals,” Rolinitis
said. “So, our job, I think,
is to look for kids who are
showing signs, showing indicators.”
He said while the staff has
formal interventions with
students about whom they
are concerned, they informally
keep an eye out for
students who may be acting
unusual or unlike themselves
on a daily basis. From
the time they walk into the
school and are greeted by
staff through their classes,
Rolinitis said teachers and
staff check in with students.
If they identify that a student
may need something
more serious than a pep talk,
a school psychologist or social
worker will speak with
the student, and parents are
informed and encouraged
to see professional help for
their students.
Rolinitis said that if at
any point a student tells a
staff member something
and they think the student
could harm herself or himself
or someone else, staff
take it very seriously.
“I really think that’s their
call for help. They’re reaching
out, and I think a lot of
times — in my experience
— they may not come directly
to us, but they’ll tell
all their friends, and then
their friends will come to
us,” he said. “It’s them,
again, reaching out. They’re
trying to figure out a way to
get help.
“So, their friends will
come to us, and we’re immediately
on top of it.
Bringing the child in, bringing
the parents in and trying
to resolve whatever problem
that they’re dealing
with — get them the help
that they need.”
In conjunction with the
suicide prevention and
awareness presentation to
the students on May 24,
Rolinitis said he used the
opportunity to talk to them
about cyber bullying, depression
and “13 Reasons
Why,” a recently released
Netflix series based on a
book.
The story is about a teenager
who commits suicide
and chronicles her reasons
for doing so in a series of
cassette tapes. Rated TV-
MA, the content is not intended
for children under
17, but Rolinitis said he and
the staff at the schools had
become aware that students
were watching the series.
He said most students at
the assembly raised their
hands when asked if they
knew of the series, and that
about 80 percent of them
indicated that they had
watched it — but only about
10 percent of those students
said their parents knew they
had watched it.
“So, I thought it was really
important that we sent
something,” Rolinitis said.
“I was glad we sent something
a few weeks prior
that said, ‘Your children
are watching this, and it’s
an important topic to talk
about. It’s an uncomfortable
topic to talk about with your
children, but you don’t want
this ever to be too late.’”
He and Assistant Principal
Eric Melnyczenko
sent a letter to parents earlier
in the month outlining
the warning signs of teen
depression and suicide, as
well as addressing the Netflix
series.
“‘13 Reasons Why’ is a
very dark story of a teenager
who commits suicide,”
the letter reads. “The series
depicts graphic sexual assaults
and shows the main
character killing herself. It
is very heavy content and
should only be viewed by
teens with parental guidance.
... It is not our intent
to be critics of the series;
rather, we see this as an
opportunity to talk about a
very sensitive subject.”
After sending the letter
and having the assembly
at school, Rolinitis said he
received a lot of positive
feedback from parents. He
said another school district
in the area even contacted
him to ask if they can use
the same letter to send to
their parents.
“It’s just making parents
aware, because we do have
a lot of at-risk types of kids
emotionally and socially,
and those kids can be pretty
impressionable,” Parente
said. “[We’re] just trying to
get ahead of it.”
In addition to the education
with students and
staff, Parente said the district
hosts parent education
nights throughout the school
year that focus on a variety
of topics, including bullying,
cyber bullying, violent
video gaming and parental
controls. The events feature
speakers from different organizations,
including the
Will County State’s Attorney’s
Office.
“We would love to have
more parents attend those,
as well to give them the
tools they need,” Parente
said. “The Internet can be
powerful, as a parent, if you
use it the right way.”
One of the things Parente
and Rolinitis agreed
that parents can help with
is teaching children that it
is all right to put away cellphones
and other devices.
“One of the things that I
think is really important is,
if you go back even just 10
years, kids could get away
from things,” Rolinitis said.
“They could get away from
a bully, they could get away
from even just the social
media aspect of it; they
can’t get away from it now.
It’s 24/7.”
Parente said part of the
problem for children and
young teens is that the frontal
lobe in their brain is not
fully developed, which can
affect the executive functioning
and the self-control
that putting away Internetconnected
devices requires.
“Social media is a wonderful
tool,” Rolinitis said.
“It is an absolutely fantastic
way of keeping connected
with people, but it’s ... a
tool, and it can’t be a lifestyle.
It has to be just something
that’s part of what you
do, if you do it at all.”