Stressing the issue of school pressure
The Wellness Center held a workshop for parents on helping students cope with stress.
February 22, 2017
Recognizing the problem of stress on campus, students working at Diamond Bar High School’s Wellness Center have teamed up with the South Asian Parent Association to enlighten parents about the issue of student anxiety.
Featuring professional parenting coach Mercedes Samudio and a question and answer panel of peer counselors, the Wellness Center’s Stress Management Workshop took place Feb. 7, working to educate the DBHS community on how to be mindful of the pressure received on a daily basis.
“We’re really worried that our students here are not [mentally] balanced, so it is really important that we’re educating on the issue, and we need our parents aware of the situation,” Wellness Center advisor Sandy Davis said.
The event went over key points addressing anxiety on campus. Samudio discussed topics such as dealing with family communication, balancing of social activities and managing stress healthily.
“I don’t think it’s any surprise that parents sometimes put a lot of pressure on their students to do well. Parents need to understand that in order for students to do well, they need to be really balanced,” Davis said.
Throughout the workshop, sleep deprivation was brought up as a prevalent issue on campus, as data gathered by Wellness Center consultants shows that over 60 percent of those who have visited the center are not getting the recommended amount of sleep for teenagers and peer counselors discussed strategies for getting more sleep.
After the presentation, participants of the workshop were given an opportunity to ask student peer counselors questions about how the Wellness Center functions and how peer counselors are able to help with problems on campus. Senior Peer Counseling presidents Brandon Tang and Siddhi Jadav helped organize a panel to answer questions.
“Our main goal is to make parents more aware of how big of an issue stress is,” Tang said. “A lot of the time, we go home, and when we complain to our parents that we’re stressed out, they don’t really understand. But in reality, we’re tired, we’re stressed and school is really really difficult, especially with the pressure at Diamond Bar.”
The panel expressed concerns on how the Wellness Center was equipped to handle panic attacks, anxiety and depression. Practical advice to help cope with everyday life was given, and peer counselors shared their experiences helping in the Wellness Center.
“Hopefully, by providing my perspective, I can give parents an idea of what their child is going through. We’re trying to inform them what our campus looks like and show what they can do to help,” Jadav said.
