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In the wake of three student Caltrain suicides in four months, student emotional health is a top priority for the Palo Alto school district.
Concerns about “social-emotional support for students” tops the list of the district’s seven proposed “focused goals” for this school year. The list will be discussed by the school board Tuesday night.
School officials plan to review the curriculum of the mandatory “Living Skills” class at both high schools with a mind to suicide prevention and also to train counselors and teachers on how better to detect and help emotionally struggling students.
But school leaders say they cannot solve the problem by themselves.
Carol Zepecki, director of student services for the district, has called for the formation of a community-wide committee to coordinate responses to suicide and teen-support initiatives of various groups, including local organizations, schools and the faith community.
“We’re seeing more social-emotional issues with our students than we’ve seen in a long time,” Zepecki told a June 24 meeting of the Palo Alto City-School Liaison Committee.
At that meeting, Deputy City Manager Steve Emslie proposed a “working group of stakeholders” to follow up on ways to support the emotional health of teens.
Palo Alto Superintendent of Recreation Rob DeGeus volunteered to oversee an update of the city’s “youth master plan,” a major, long-term undertaking.
Prior to the most recent suicide Friday, religious groups had joined to organize a “multifaith community response” scheduled for Monday, Aug. 31, at 7 p.m. Cubberley Community Theatre, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.
Palo Alto Mayor Peter Drekmeier will moderate a six-member panel, including representatives from Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Christian Science traditions.
The topic is supporting teens’ “spiritual, mental, social and physical well-being as they begin the school year.”
Earlier this month, district leaders -– clearly deeply troubled about the May and June suicides -– brainstormed on the best ways to address student emotional health.
Ideas, discussed at the Board of Education’s annual retreat Aug. 3-4 at the University Club of Palo Alto, were all over the map.
Several suggested ways to make sure every student has a “strong connection” with at least one adult on campus.
School board member Melissa Baten Caswell suggested enlisting the PTAs to form their “parent education” agendas around the priorities of the district.
“The PTA’s No. 1 mission is parent education,” Baten Caswell said. “Enlist them for your priorities. They’d rather be doing topics you think are important.”
Others criticized, half-jokingly, the assignments of unremittingly “dark” literature by English teachers to high school students.
District Superintendent Kevin Skelly said his daughter recently had finished “A Separate Peace” and threw the book across the room. Board member Dana Tom said his son was reading John Steinbeck and asked, “Who’s going to die next?”
School board member Camille Townsend cited dual demands on school counselors: to act both as “therapists” and as “counselors for academic growth and college placement.”
“Some of the most effective college counselors travel east and make those one-on-one relationships with the Ivy League,” Townsend said. “I’d hate to lose those relationships.
“Are the funds going for these college counselors making the trips necessary to help our kids get those placements? That’s very different from a therapist. That’s almost like two different roles.”
School leaders appeared to agree on at least one approach: trying to promote a “common language” in the teaching of character development and emotional health in the schools.
Many but not all of the district’s 12 elementary schools use the “Steps to Respect” anti-bullying curriculum.
“If we had more of a common language they all understood because they’d heard it in elementary school, then when you get to the scary stage of middle school there’s this potential that when you speak a certain way the students always understand,” board member Barbara Klausner said.
Skelly suggested holding a “summit” of Living Skills teachers to work toward a common curriculum addressing key concerns around emotional health.
Skelly also called for “building a culture where it’s OK to admit you have mental health issues.”
He said he wished parents would be as open about a child’s diagnosis of depression as a diagnosis of diabetes on student-health forms required for school admission.
“We need to know if a student is being treated for depression. We need to take some of the stigma out of that for our community and for our world.”
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