Q&A
Discussion on wellness clubs and challenges in implementation
1:29:50
·
3 min
Council Member Lee inquires about the challenges faced in starting and maintaining wellness clubs in schools. Students and the youth worker share their experiences and obstacles encountered.
- Challenges include low participation due to fear or lack of interest
- Administrative resistance and preference for suspensions over restorative approaches
- The negative impact of suspensions on students' academic performance and learning
- The need for policy changes to support wellness clubs and restorative justice approaches
Linda Lee
1:29:50
I love that.
1:29:51
Yeah.
UNKNOWN
1:29:52
Can I
Nasirah Fair
1:29:52
add something small?
1:29:53
Sure.
1:29:53
They're also starting a wellness club in the liberation program at Community Heights Academy for health.
1:29:59
Sorry.
1:30:00
CHA is the acronym.
1:30:02
And they are a school with a high suspension rate extremely high suspension rate.
1:30:05
And so we're partnered with that school now to start a wellness club.
Linda Lee
1:30:10
And then did you have any barriers starting the clubs that you guys had in your, schools?
1:30:14
Challenges.
1:30:15
Challenges?
1:30:16
Yeah.
Cree Atkins-Griffin
1:30:17
My biggest challenge was not having a lot of people because I feel like some people are just afraid, or even some people are just lazy.
1:30:26
And I feel like some people even feel like your voice is not to be heard.
1:30:31
Me, personally, as an outspoken person, I feel like your voice should always be heard because you should have feelings.
1:30:39
Your opinions should matter to others, and people should know how you feel because it's not fun being in that shadowed box because I'm never a person who's in there, but I know people who have been in there.
1:30:51
So it's like hearing your voice, it just makes me feel good because it helps me understand better as a person.
1:30:57
And, like I'm sorry.
1:30:59
I don't know how to, like, put it.
1:31:01
So yeah.
1:31:03
Did you have any challenges at all?
Adonte Dacosta
1:31:07
For me, my challenge is when we would try and, like, talk to a friend.
1:31:11
My friend is was actually try to get him sitting down and open up because mainly because we owe we all hide that have that ideology about, like, this is my problem.
1:31:25
I'm going through this.
1:31:26
I had to fix this.
1:31:28
But we said, we owe together.
1:31:31
What happened to you happened to me, what happened to all of us?
1:31:34
So don't hide.
1:31:36
Just try to express your emotion with all of us if you need help.
Nasirah Fair
1:31:43
I think we've been hearing from young people also and educators that we work with that a lot of the challenge comes from the administration not being on board also, and looking to turn to suspension as the solution before, engaging in any restorative approaches.
1:32:01
And so it would be a lot easier to implement wellness clubs if it were more of a policy that every school had to have a wellness club or to have a restorative justice approach before suspension became an option.
Cree Atkins-Griffin
1:32:17
What did you want to say?
1:32:19
Can I add in something, actually, about suspension?
1:32:22
I have myself served a superintendent suspension, and it was more of I was out of school for 2 weeks, so I was missing out on a lot of work.
1:32:33
I was emailing teachers to help me catch up, and, unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that.
1:32:39
So it became a huge drop in my grade, and I feel like that's why we really need the wellness is because as a kid like me who has served time from 2 weeks out of school, I feel like it's not fair that I should I it's fair that I'm serving my consequence, but it's also not fair that I'm kinda also missing my education too because I do go to school for one reason, and that is to learn.
