Walking the halls of a high school can be a challenge for anyone, but it can be even harder for students to walk for the very first time. Entering ninth grade is a challenge from navigating a new school, facing intimidating upperclassmen, along with changes to the teenage body. The counseling staff at Perham High School incorporated a new ninth grade health day to assist with those challenges facing new high school students.

The day featured presentations dealing with stress and anxiety, physical health, chemical health, digital health and hearing true life stories from people who have experienced a variety of different struggles and overcoming them in their life.

The event featured real life experiences from speakers such as Judy-Bellanger-Dahl PA-C and Courtney Rooney discussing physical health to the female students and Mr. Jeff Morris and Mr. Erin Anderson speaking on physical health to the male students. Tammy Detloff and Ann Guck spoke on stress and anxiety, while ISD 549 School Resource Officer Manny Reyes spoke on vaping. Armando Neeland and Dacari Busse spoke on true life experiences and things they have overcome in their life.

High School Principal Ehren Zimmerman said the purpose of the day was to spread awareness on how several factors can affect the lives of students daily.

“Each of these topics are hot topics that we are working on with our high school students daily,” Zimmerman said.

Lakeland Mental Health Professional Courtney Rooney said the school always looks at the transition years, such as moving from elementary school into middle school as well as middle school into high school.

“We just wanted to take some time to talk about the hot topics. I think with this generation of kids right now, they learn best from people who have lived it,” Rooney said. “We tried to find some of the topics that they were interested in, topics they were making decisions on and found some speakers to share their experiences.”

Instead of having a large group of students, they split into smaller groups and made the event more comfortable and personal for the students with the hope of erasing the fear of asking questions in front of a large group of peers.

Perham High School Dean of Students Ryan Hendrickson said they wanted students to learn from other’s mistakes when they brought in the group of speakers to talk to the ninth-grade class.

“We wanted to reassure students that you are new to Perham High School and there are a lot of services provided here and to rely on those,” Hendrickson said. “You don’t have to do this alone, there are people here to help you and guide you.”

Hendrickson said it was a fantastic opportunity for students to hear life experiences from an additional source other than people they hear from on a day-to-day basis. Hendrickson hopes the life lessons the students heard during the day are something that will hit home with them.

Rooney said while we all have been in middle school and high school during our lives, things have changed over time and students face many different obstacles growing up compared to past generations.

“These kids are fast moving, want to be ‘in the know’ and want some control,” Rooney said. “These qualities with this generation can go one of two ways. If we can connect with them, we can help guide them in the right direction. There are truly some great kids in this group but still faced with tough decisions. We need to find their strengths and foster them.”

“One of the things young teenagers often tell me is they are not always listened to. Adults tell them what they should do instead of listening to how they feel. This day was an opportunity for the students to be heard and have some of their needs addressed. Rooney said it was a good opportunity for give and take between the kids and the adults in the event.

Rooney offered high praise to the presenters and the students for asking questions during the event. Rooney said Mental Health is something that students and adults must talk about and the topics from the ninth-grade health day support that in some way.

“It gives them comfort in knowing that life is hard for everyone sometimes, but with support they can guide themselves to make good choices,” Rooney said. “Our goal for every one of these kids is to see them walk across the stage at graduation and to feel good about themselves and what they accomplished. Self-esteem is hard at this age and anything we as adults can do to promote feeling good and strong about themselves is what we want to do.”

Hendrickson said the decision to have it between the transition from first trimester to second trimester is they wanted to be proactive if a student had a difficult transition.

“Let’s not wait any longer to have some of these difficult conversations. What can we do to help you out?” Hendrickson said. “The kids need to know they are not the only ones who may be struggling or having problems with some of this transition. We are all in this thing together. We have 35 staff members here who want to see you be successful. Part of the process is bridging that gap between student and staff and reminding them to be good advocates for themself.”

Hendrickson said one way for students to be an advocate is raising their hand in class and asking for help. He said one of the presenters hit that point home. Hendrickson added it is tough for a 14 or a 15-year-old to raise their hand and admit they do not know what is going on.

“We hopefully provided them with other tools and resources to help bridge that gap in communication between student and staff,” Hendrickson added.

Hendrickson added that students have reached out after the event, and it is something they believe will continue in the future.