CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — On Monday, a skit on mental health was performed at West Oso Independent School District's convocation.
This year the district plans to focus on the well-being of a Happy and Healthy Staff and students to be able to have a Happy Healthy School.
“One of the things we’re doing at West Oso ISD to support our students this year is giving every staff member two mental health days per year— so they can have one in the fall semester and one day in the spring semester," Superintendent Kimberly Moore said.
Dr. Steve Bain a professor of counseling at Texas A&M University Kingsville was a guest speaker and said the topic of mental health is often avoided.
“We want to make the connection so that when mental health needs to be talked about, it’s a comfortable topic and one that’s laced with advocacy," he said.
Bain added that mental health plays a huge role in students' lives, and in order for children to have the necessary education, it's important that their teachers are healthy, both physically and mentally.
“One of the things that we did is that we had to write mini grants to help us provide a program called 'First Contact'," Bain said."It’s a program that we can use the Nueces County, Kleberg County and surrounding areas to provide training for professionals in the school districts who are not necessarily in the classroom."
For nearly seven years Carmen Rodriguez has been working at West Oso Elementary School’s cafeteria. She said it fills her heart with joy knowing that she now will be properly trained to be able to continue to help students.
“They always need somebody they can come to because sometimes you know they can’t come to somebody maybe at home—if they have a problem sometimes they don’t feel comfortable with the teacher, but they have to find that one person that they can relate to," Rodriguez said.
Bain said sometimes it's the bus driver or the cafeteria worker who might get to see a child in a way that maybe the teacher didn’t get to see or the counselor.
The 'First Contact' program will allow the professionals to know what’s happening and how to report it to the administration.
“It’s incredibly important that even though schools are about you know teaching content, but it’s also about developing and growing and nurturing people and not just students that take score of this," Moore said. "The staff is responsible for these students but creating individuals that are healthy and happy and are not just performing.
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