Mental health programs at heart of State of the District

COEUR d’ALENE — Tragedy seared through Coeur d'Alene less than a year ago with the passing of Coeur d'Alene High School Principal Troy Schueller.

Lake City High School freshman Dylan Ward was an eighth-grader at Lakes Magnet Middle School when he heard of the suicide. It was also a time the world, and especially young people, were reeling from the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., among other local and national events that left deep emotional scars.

"In the past year and a half, all these horrible things that’s happened with the suicides and CHS, everybody else. It’s not a good note, but it’s something you have to mention,” Dylan said, addressing a near-capacity crowd during the annual State of the District on Tuesday evening at the Innovation Den as he spoke about the importance of the QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) suicide prevention program.

"The CHS tragedy happened with the principal. It was not good. Multiple teachers were affected," he said. "That’s something we just don’t want, for an obvious reason. QPR can help with that. No matter how you look at it, there’s always going to be the bad sides of everything, but you just have to focus on the good sides."

QPR helps people, Dylan said — "This is an opportunity for our high schools to make a change."

"People change your life for the better or worse, and you want to avoid the people that make you worse because that’s when things start going downhill," he said. "QPR helps you kind of realize what’s better for your life."

Programs like QPR — which trains people to recognize a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade and refer someone to help — were at the heart of the State of the District as students from the Coeur d'Alene School District took the mic.

Students from elementary school on up are learning ways to cope with the challenges and pains in their lives through a variety of programs, from trauma-informed practices that help kids identify when they're about to "flip their lid" to Sources of Strength, which encourages students to look out for their peers and connect those struggling to resources that could save their lives.

"I can confidently say that it has changed my life, in a very significant way," Lakes eighth-grader Olivia Jolley said of Sources of Strength.

"I came into sixth grade like, 'I'm so excited for middle school,' and then I came in and I was like, 'This kind of sucks.' I didn't really know how to handle it because as a normal middle-schooler, I'm overly emotional and didn't really know what to do with myself," she said. "There were some moments where I was really, really sad and depressed sometimes."

Through Sources of Strength, Olivia was able to make improvements in her life without even being aware of it.

"It started to teach me how to create community with people and how to talk to people," she said. "It taught me how to deal with my emotions and taught me that I do have strengths."

The State of the District, presented by Coeur d'Alene Education Partnership in conjunction with the Coeur d'Alene School District, gives the community an annual update on what's happening in School District 271's schools.

As well as the discussions about the mental health resources, the State of the District included the presentation of SPEAK (Students Performing Extraordinary Acts of Kindness) Awards to three students for being awesome in their own ways and district officials briefed their audience on what will be covered in the March 12 school levy election.

"I was kind of glad it wasn’t filled with stats and numbers, personally. That’s all information you can obtain on websites and that sort of thing,” Coeur d'Alene mom Korrine Rothrock said of the event, adding that it was meaningful "to really hear from teachers and students about these kinds of programs that are so important to their well being and helping them learn."

"I was actually surprised. I didn’t realize we have so much going on. When I went to high school I didn’t have anything like that,” said Jessica Jans, mom of a 3-year-old who will be a Coeur d'Alene student in the future.

"It was a bit more progressive than I expected from Coeur d’Alene," she said. "That’s a good thing, very uplifting. All positive things."