SHS_Warrior

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STAFF
Editor-in-Chief ........................................... Audrey Farris ‘25
Managing Print Editor ....................... Evelyn San Miguel ‘26
Managing Online Editor .................................... Ziv Golan ‘26
Print
News ..................................................... Evelyn San Miguel ‘26
Opinions ............................... Seph Fischer ‘25, Cliff Vacin ‘25
Pulse ............................................................. Maya Dorsam ‘27
Spotlight ...................................................... Audrey Farris ‘25
Humor ........................................................ Declan Rooney ‘25
Entertainment ........ George Awkard ‘25, Jordan Costolo ‘25
Sports ................................Cara Farr ‘27, Andrew Fenner ‘27
Copy and Content
Director of Copy & Content ................................ Katie Ng ‘25
Copy and Content Editor ............................. Justin Lakso ‘25
Business and Social Media
Director of Social Media ............................ Declan Rooney ‘25
Director of Advertising ............................. Jordan Costolo ‘25
Photography
Director of Photography ................................... Cliff Vacin ‘25
Photographers ............................... Zach Geller ‘25, Matthew
Leighton-Jones ‘25, Elijah Goodman ‘26
Staff Writers
Taylor Adams ‘27, Madelyn Awwad ‘27, Lilah Boig ‘26,
Jack Engelhardt ‘25, Ryan Green ‘26, Nick Hammond ‘25.
Matilda Hawkins ‘27, Paloma Illanes ‘25, Mark Joseph ‘25,
Aiden Kincaid ‘25, Nisha Khatri ‘26, Isabella Landaverde
‘27, Julius Lindner ‘26, Emma Link ‘27, Fiona Lipczenko
‘25, Aby Lo ‘26, Shannon Naas ‘26, Laurika Pich ‘27, Piotr
Popiel-Machnicki ‘26, Josh Pulaski ‘25, Molly Schecter ‘27,
Deepika Shrestha ‘27, Chase Sondike ‘26,
Rachel Themistokleous ‘26
The Warrior staff invites feedback and corrections to
printed inaccuracies.
The Warrior • Opinions
February 20, 2025
Sherwood Mental Health Resources
Fail to Effectively Aid Students
by Maya Dorsam ‘27
Sherwood offers an incredible
number of mental health resources,
but I bet you can’t name
half of them or where they are. In
addition to the in-school Bridge
to Wellness team that includes a
Therapist, a Care Manager, and
a Youth Development Specialist
through MCPS’ partnership with
the Department of Health and Human
Services, the school provides
seven full-time counselors, a social
worker, and a school psychologist.
Sherwood also offers various
Wellness/Quiet rooms that
can be used for telehealth therapy
appointments. Upon this discovery,
I was shocked and forced
to ask what the purpose of these
resources was if nobody knew
about them, and how we could fix
them to be more effective.
According to Kelly Singleton,
head of the counseling
department, approximately 300
check-ins to the counseling office
have been recorded for
mental health-related reasons so
far this school year. The number
of check-ins at Sherwood
reflect alarming national statistics
that show that adolescents
are struggling with their mental
health and well-being. One in
six youth have a mental health
condition and more than half go
untreated, while 42 percent of
teens experience feelings of persistent
hopelessness or sadness.
Almost one-fourth of teens have
seriously considered attempting
suicide. About 1,500 students attend
Sherwood, meaning at least
600 of them could benefit from
the school’s resources based on
the data points provided above.
The 300ish check-ins to the counseling
office recorded for mental
health reasons do not begin
to reach the audience that could
be benefitting from them (even
when assuming each check-in
was made by a different student,
which is highly unlikely).
While I truly believe that
the counselors at our school care
about the well-being of students,
the process of leaving class to
seek assistance makes the task
impractical. Take a student with
anxiety, for example. In most
cases, the last thing they would
want to do while experiencing
high stress is miss important class
time to see a counselor only to
return to more work, inducing
further anxiety about catching up.
Many students are left to struggle
through the school day and battle
illness on their own due to these
sorts of dilemmas.
I acknowledge that it is difficult
to address the topic of mental
health when school hours are limited,
but I would like to present
some suggestions. Students and
counselors must establish real
relationships through scheduled
meet-ups during advisory periods
and lunch. I’m not saying these
need to occur often when unnecessary,
but they should be scheduled
during cut-out times that do
not interfere with learning in order
to show that the school prioritizes
the issue. Counselors should
set goals to see and talk to each of
the students on their caseload and
not just those who come to them.
It’s also crucial that teachers
acknowledge their impact
on teen mental health. Finding
better practices that may reduce
unhealthy stress that leads to destructive
behavior is the first step.
It’s easy to forget that students
have six other classes in addition
to home responsibilities, sports,
and jobs. But, with such careless
thinking, students are bound
to suffer its side effects and tremendous
weight. The resources
available for increased student
well-being and when it is best to
seek them must become common
knowledge. Especially at such an
essential stage of life, students
must be met with empathetic figures
in their lives.
Perspective has a direct impact
on teen mental health and
with so many who are fixated on
perfection, they are set up for failure.
A small fix that can drastically
help a number of teens are adults
and positive figures who seek
to reassure such impressionable
minds that the whole world does
not rest on their shoulders. Easing
the stresses of school for example
by explaining that grades truly do
not equal the success of your future,
is an essential factor in positive
well-being for those whose
mental health priorities fade behind
the importance of grades and
athletic success. Increased performance
in school, sports, and life
in general can only be improved
with extensive consideration of
how the entirety of our school approaches
mental health.
If you or someone you know is experiencing
a mental health crisis or considering
suicide, please call or text
988 for assistance.
What’s the Best Time?
Standard Time
by Zach Geller ‘25
The United States should join the rest of
the world and stick to permanent Standard
Time (ST). This is for numerous reasons, especially
the benefits that ST has over Daylight
Saving Time (DST). The first and most
important of these benefits is that ST aligns
with people’s natural circadian rhythm, or the
body’s inner-clock.
The benefits of following your circadian
rhythm are clear and important, such as better
sleep, lower risks of mental illness, and healthier
emotional coping strategies like temper
control. Circadian rhythms match best with
Standard Time, and get out of sorts whenever
clocks are an hour backwards. “Evidence
indicates that the body clock does not adjust
to DST even after several months, so that ongoing
sleep debt and circadian misalignment
continue to persist,” according to the Journal
of Clinical Sleep Medicine. People’s bodies
are meant to rise with the sun and rest in the
night, so even a slight shift has harmful effects.
There’s also the argument of convenience;
Standard Time would align the country with
the rest of the world. Time zones already offset
the time between areas, and having to keep
track of an extra hour switch for the United
States can confuse foreigners. Observing Daylight
Saving Time is unnecessary, and it just
doesn’t make sense.
A national debate concerning Daylight
Saving Time has been rekindled across
the country. According to a YouGov poll, 62
percent of Americans want to abolish the
shifting of clocks forward and back an hour
throughout the year, with only 21 percent
of respondents definitively wanting to keep
it. Although a clear majority of people,
including President Trump, want the cycle
of changing the time to end, it’s split on
whether people want to fully adopt Standard
Time (earlier sunrises and sunsets) or
transition to a permanent DST (later sunrises
and sunsets).
Daylight Saving Time
by Nick Hammond ‘25
Hopefully when the United States abolishes
the shift of clocks, the country will keep
permanent Daylight Saving Time (DST). This
simply makes more logical sense for the majority
of Americans.
First of all, the sun setting early in the
evening is a bummer for many people. Think
back to the start of winter - were you really
happy seeing the sun go down around 5:00pm
some days? I certainly wasn’t, and that’s Standard
Time for you. Especially when most students
get home around 3:00pm, we hardly get
any daylight left. In the winter students with
sports or extracurriculars sometimes don’t
even see the sun when they get out of school
and head home. Shifting sunsets an hour earlier
will make the evenings feel fleeting and sad.
While current internal clocks may align
more with Standard Time, if given more than
a few months with DST, people should be able
to adapt and feel better mentally. Furthermore,
the additional sun exposure and vitamin D in
the evenings will also contribute to student
well-being as well as physical health. Foreigners
would also quickly adapt to this change if
we make it apply across the country. Travelers
are already used to shifting time zones, and
wouldn’t have a problem with a time structure
in DST after a very short while.