Cd’A schools approves Sources of Strength

The Coeur d’Alene School Board on Monday approved the adoption of Sources of Strength resources at the elementary level.

The vote was split 3-2. Chair Rebecca Smith, Vice Chair Casey Morrisroe and Trustee Heather Tenbrink all voted in favor. Trustees Allie Anderton and Lesli Bjerke cast dissenting votes. Bjerke attended the school board meeting via video conference.

Sources of Strength is a suicide-prevention program that uses peer social networks with the goal of creating positive change in school culture. It is already in use in Coeur d'Alene's middle and high schools and has been piloted in five of the district’s elementary schools.

Tenbrink said discussions are happening in the community about real issues kids face — bullying, peer pressure, social media and harassment.

“Our kids need their parents to set some guidelines for them, to have some frank conversations with them, to make some rules for them,” she said.

She said children also need the community and Sources of Strength is way the community can be there for them.

“They can help our kids build resilience. They can help our kids develop the strengths they need to deal with these hard things,” Tenbrink said. “I have teenagers, I know they're hard things. And I want my kids to have all the tools they can have to deal with that.”

She said she read the entire curriculum and found lessons within Sources of Strength her own kids would have benefited from in elementary school.

“I think they would have been really helpful for my kids at the time,” she said.

The district’s Midtown Meeting Center was full as was the sign-up sheet for people who wanted to speak during the 45-minute public comment period of the meeting.

Many of the 18 who spoke were in favor of implementing the programming for primary students. A few spoke in opposition.

Before voting “no,” Bjerke read from a prepared statement and said she had spent a lot of time reviewing and researching the Sources of Strength curriculum.

“Much of the content is not age-appropriate and creates a one-size-fits-all program that fails to address individual needs that some of our students have,” she read. “Rather than expect all students to comply to a singular, defined approach, it would be better to address the needs of our most vulnerable students in a more private setting.”

Prior to the programming being adopted, the school district had no district-wide curriculum for addressing what Sources of Strength covers. The curriculum comprises eight foundational factors: Mental health, family support, positive friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality and physical health.

Lake City High School student Cody Diamond shared his Sources of Strength experience. He said that throughout 14 years of his life, he had times where he felt he had no one but his family.

“That caused a strong sense of loneliness, as I had no idea where my strengths were. I had no idea how to show my strengths and I did not have a safe space to express who I was,” he said. “I was always pushed down by a feeling of overwhelming shyness. In this year and my sophomore year, I was exposed to the Sources of Strength program and it really helped me realize what I had been longing for for so long.”

It helped him have the confidence to talk to people, he said.

“For the first time in my life, I’m proud to say, Sources of Strength has helped me find people I can proudly call friends and people that I know are by my side,” he said. “I feel like if we included this at a younger age, I wouldn’t have had to go through what I did. I feel like if you know your strengths and you have a safe space at a younger age, you can stop yourself from having to deal with anxiety or paranoia and you can put yourself out there earlier, and therefore start being healthier, mentally and physically, at a younger age.”

The district has accepted public comment on the issue for several weeks and received more than 200 letters and emails, 85% of which were in support of introducing the programming to primary school students.

Matt Edwards of Hayden said he’s not opposed to suicide prevention, but he is against Sources of Strength. He said he believes it’s a divisive ideology masked as a mental health program. Edwards, who said he thoroughly reviewed the Sources of Strength curriculum, said it is lacking certain words: integrity, character, honor, innovation, loyalty, virtue, honesty, decency, responsibility, morality, respect or tolerance.

“None of those words were in any of this curriculum,” he said. “If we want to start treating people with mental health problems, then we need to treat everybody with the respect they deserve by creating good citizens with integrity.”

Keith Orchard, mental health coordinator for the district, said a lot of programs come across his desk every couple weeks, and the district says “no” to all of them because the community has been clear about what it wants.

He said community members have let the district know they don’t want to talk about mental health issues all the time, that they want a program that is positive and hopeful, “which is why Sources of Strength is so good,” he said. “It talks about strengths and positivity and resources.”

He said community members want a program that works.

“When you have many adverse childhood experiences, early stress and trauma leads to many poor physical health, mental health, behavioral outcomes,” Orchard said. “What we know through research is that resiliency is the one thing that can overcome that … the more resilience factors they have can override, weigh out and help balance them. Everything that is on the Sources of Strength wheel are positive and resilience factors, and that’s why we chose that one.”