Credit: Pennsbury School District
In the newly renovated auditorium at Pennwood Middle School, the Pennsbury Committed to Life Task Force presented its goals and vision before an assembly of concerned parents and faculty from the school district.
The task force’s umbrella mission is to destigmatize issues surrounding mental health and addiction via a number of means. The task force is made up of a number of social workers, administrators and other people closely associated with the Pennsbury School District. Jacqui Redner, the president of the school board spoke to the assembly, detailing her own family’s struggles with mental health and addiction.
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Opening the presentation, Superintendent Dr. William Gretzula spoke of the numerous accomplishments and statuses the school district holds. Academic, athletic and artistic achievements were touted before delving into the reason for the task force’s existence.
“We are not a broken system. We have students accomplishing incredible things,” Gretzula said. “Despite these accomplishments, though, we recognize that a number of our students are disengaged.”
Speaking of her own family’s dealings with suicide, Redner spoke of the need to destigmatize the conversation surrounding mental health.
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“They don’t think of it as an illness because they can’t see it, and that really is sad,” Redner said. “This task force is here to make sure that nobody in this district needs to do what I have had to do twice.”
The task force aims to do a number of things to combat the stigma and make help more readily available. The new task force’s goals include creating an evidence-based curriculum, identify current district resources to deal with mental health and substance abuse, develop an appropriate continuum for students, host more community forums like the one held on Wednesday, provide updated staff training to recognize red flags, enhance the delivery of student support groups and reevaluate Student Assistance Programs (SAP).
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The panel touched on a number of issues throughout the night as the audience asked questions. The conversation surrounding the phrase to “commit suicide” was brought up by Redner as well.
“My son did not commit a crime. He died,” she said.
Speaking to the board, a number of audience members told their own heart wrenching stories and offered suggestions and criticisms to the board. One speaker suggested having kids deliver important messages to other kids. Other speakers talked about ways to increase parent engagement, a crucial step in getting kids to engage.
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Wednesday night’s forum was the first, but it will likely not be the last as the task force moves forward looking for ways to combat the stigmas among the community.
