Students at Morton East apparently prefer to keep their feelings to themselves.
In a random class, 7 out of 20 Morton East students said they do care about mental health. The reaction of the students there was just curiosity and looking around to see if they were the only ones or deciding whether they should raise their hands or not. This shows that students don’t know if mental health is taken seriously in school.
Here’s what people had to say about the topic:
“My safe place is my room. I feel peaceful and relaxed while I’m there. Some strategies I use are staying alone and sleeping. I keep my feelings to myself; I don’t like feeling judged,” said sophomore Stacy Damian.
“Some strategies are to talk to people close to me—not necessarily about everything deep, just regular conversations. I rarely talk about my mental health state. Although it helps to talk to my friends to remind me that my worries are not that serious and I’m just making them up. One great safe place I use is the gym. I like it because I can push myself and feel accomplished, and it tires me out,” said junior Jorge Luna.
“I don’t really have strategies, but my safe place is my room because I’m just in my own space. I do not talk to anyone about my feelings,” said senior Gaby Villaseñor.
“Whenever I feel my mental health going down, I like to color, and I also like to spend time with my family. My safe place is my grandma’s home. I love being able to go to her house. I get sad whenever I think about my grandpa since he is the first person close to me that passed away,” said teacher Nathale Guerrero-Ramirez.
“En realidad, no creo en todo de la salud mental, pero cuando me siento mal prefiero dormir. Mi lugar seguro será mi casa en México. Yo hablo con mi mamá; todos alguna vez necesitamos a nuestra mamá cuando nos sentimos mal,” said Maria Salome Morales, a parent of a Morton East student.
As you can see, students at Morton East have mixed emotions about talking about mental health. They prefer to keep this topic to themselves.
