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Youth Mental Health

This series focuses on students’ mental health, the sources of their distress, and how schools and communities can help.

‘Creating a feeling of compassion & care’

Kenowa Hills Alexis Stark
Kenowa Hills continues efforts to support mental health for students of all ages, featuring a therapy dog who is such a good listener. Yes he is!

Restorative circles create safe space at the top of the day  

Kenowa Hills Alexis Stark
Restorative morning circles in Margaret Sicilian’s classroom at Central Elementary lift barriers and open the possibility for connection, collaboration and mutual understanding. 

Students tackle youth mental health crisis with peers

Youth Mental Health Allison Poosawtsee
As Michigan schools strategize to provide mental health support for students, these high schoolers are taking action on their own...

Amid youth mental health crisis, districts invest in new programs

Youth Mental Health Allison Poosawtsee
Youth are in crisis when it comes to mental health. What are Kent County schools doing to address the concerns that students bring into the classroom?

What do you like best about school?

All Districts Erin Albanese
In this final installment of our student roundtable, the high school panelists share what they enjoy about school, and what makes them feel connected...

How safe do you feel in your school?

All Districts Charles Honey
Our student panelists talk about the toll school shootings take on their sense of safety, and what needs to be done to curb the plague of gun violence in schools...

How much of a problem is social media, and how do we fix it?

All Districts Charles Honey
Our student panelists say TikTok, Instagram and other social media are breeding insecurity and rewiring their brains in unhealthy ways...

What would you like adults to know about what your life is like?

All Districts Charles Honey
Our student panelists unload about the pressures of high school life, getting those good grades and living up to their families’ expectations...

How big an issue is mental health at your school?

All Districts Erin Albanese
High school panelists share what they think are the strengths of and challenges to finding support...

What is it like to be a high school student today?

Student Voices Erin Albanese
What’s life like for a high school student in 2023? In a six-part series, 10 students from all corners of Kent County talk about their pressures, stressors and happy places...

Film class ‘teaching us how to be whole’

Rockford Allison Poosawtsee
Rockford High film students put mental health in the spotlight in most every project they create...

District buildings promote mental health awareness  

Kenowa Hills Alexis Stark
Paint Kenowa Green has become a semester-long effort...

An MSU grad’s painful reflection: violence has turned my former green-and-white home red

Personal Commentary Alexis Stark
A School News Network reporter and MSU graduate reflects on the horrific shooting at her alma mater...

Biggest individual donation ever will support mental health

East Grand Rapids Beth Heinen Bell
A record-setting gift is poised to make a significant difference in the mental health and well-being of East Grand Rapids students...

‘Your emotions matter’

Wyoming Erin Albanese
Students are learning that all emotions matter and that recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing and regulating them helps them and others...

Connecting through circles

Kentwood Erin Albanese
Kentwood’s approach to restorative practices is about equity, inclusion...
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