Students bring hope with new group
Tea Area students in the middle and high school are bringing hope to the student body with the Hope Squad.
Hope Squad, a national program, started in the high school in December of the 2023-24 school year. It started in the middle school at the start of this school year.
About 25 students in 9-12 grade are part of the Hope Squad. Students were selected to be on Hope Squad by a vote from their peers.
High school counselors Amber Olafson and Tonee Ektnitphong serve as advisers to the group. Ektnitphong first heard about Hope Squad when he interned in the Flandreau School District, which was the first school in South Dakota to introduce it. He said it was on their radar for a few years and they finally got it started last year.
“I think we’re still learning how to best implement the group in the school system just being a newer group and being a heavy topic, so how do we get that information out to the students and how do we make the students in the group comfortable using QPR and their techniques and trainings that we’re doing,” Olafson said.
“Additionally, I think it takes a while to build the culture that we’re trying to build with Hope Squad. I think part of it is that mental health awareness and having students that are feeling down being able to speak with their other peers but also come and get assistance and trying to build positive school culture. We’re all one team,” Ektnitphong said. “That starts in middle school and up into the high school. Getting the Hope Squad running in the middle school will definitely help bring some of that culture into the high school so students know what it is when they enter high school.”
Senior Hope Squad member Delainey Burreck said their goal is to spread awareness about preventing suicide and making people feel comfortable talking about mental health.
“Sometimes it’s something that’s really covered up and people think it’s an awkward thing to bring up, but kind of our job is to say it’s OK to not be OK and it’s OK to talk about it,” Burreck said.
The Hope Squad meets once a month and plans activities for Hope Week at end of April, beginning of May. At their meetings, they have trainings on noticing the signs of suicide.
“Our job is to be a student representative that other students that are struggling, they can come to us and we can be people who can help them find other sources of help,” Burreck said.
Their trainings vary every meeting, but every time they talk about QPR - Question, Persuade and Refer. Junior member Daschle Lowery said they have learned how to approach someone to talk about mental health.
“How you approach someone and how to ask them without asking them so they keep on being comfortable talking to you,” Lowery said.
Sophomore member Breslyn Rand said last year during Hope Week they put hearts up with everybody’s names so they felt loved.
“We’re going to do that this year, but this year’s theme is Planting A Seed of Hope so we’re going to think of doing flowers with everybody’s names to correspond it to the theme more,” Rand said.
Junior member Savannah Stahnke said students have come to them.
“I feel like so many people suffer in silence and it’s jut like they don’t want to talk about it and it’s awkward. Going to someone like a counselor can be very intimidating so having a peer that knows and trained to do these things is less intimidating. Then they can still get the help they need,” Stahnke said.
Olafson said a lot of the research shows that adolescents are more comfortable with their peers than going to an adult with an issue.
“Having a peer to peer mental health suicide awareness group is important because that’s where we’re going to get most of the referrals because the students are comfortable with each other,” Olafson said.
In addition to the data showing that students go to a friend before an adult, Ektnitphong has seen that is true in the school too. He and Olafson get referrals a lot of the time from a friend or significant other of a student who is struggling.
“We already see that, so increasing those referrals. I also feel like we have data that we collect school-wide as far as mental health so we see that there’s a need in the school. There’s a lot of students that are struggling,” Ektnitphong said. “(We are) making sure that we are able to connect those students with the right resources for the issues they’re struggling with.”