Minutes 11.2.16/Agenda 11.9.16

Post date: Nov 8, 2016 7:45:12 PM

Agenda 11.9.16

• 1. Approval of Minutes

  2. Reports

  3. Handbook Revision Bylaw Notification

  4. JCOM Bylaw Notification

  5. Mental Health Discussion

  6. Notes and New Business

Council Minutes 11.2.16

“I’m made up of everyone I’ve ever met who’s changed the way I think” -Terry Pratchett

• 1. Approval of Minutes

  2. Reports

     • Mod: In our discussion about mental health please remember to be respectful because it is a sensitive issue but there are no wrong questions

     • Treasurer: Co-Curricular:$5,816.04, Council: $5,013.03

     • Secretary: Staff and Sophomore alternate can vote

     • PR: We have one more common ground that we need covered, room 234

     • Admin: Bylaw Revision Today

     • Curric: Discussed a possible motion

     • Student Life: working to search for the new superintendent

     • SAC: Great halloween dress up turn out. Planning to ask for a little more time for Winter Carnival this year

     • Service Ad Hoc: Met Monday after school to discuss goals and planned to send out a survey to get an idea of what service kids are doing outside of YIA

     • Gender Ad Hoc: Discussed changing name to be about inclusivity in general rather than just gender and discussed finding a related MLK speaker. Meetings 3rd period on Mondays in room 108

     • Council Space: Have been meeting with various groups. No committee yet but anyone who is interested should stop by my office in the library to see the architectural renderings that have been created so far

     • March Intensive Committee: Juniors and Seniors have to sign up by the end of Common Ground so remind people. On election day on Tuesday we are looking for people to bake for a bake sale we are holding to raise money for the March Intensive Scholarship Fund

  3. Staff of the Month Bylaw Change

“I Move to strike Article VII,  Section C, Item 2, Letter D from the Council Bylaws”

• • • Admin is going to bring a later motion revising the process for several awards but this award is unnecessary as a responsibility for Council and is not awarded

    • Motion Passes (Handcount: 39 aye, 0 nay, 0 abstentions)

• • Mental Health Discussion

    • There seems to be a lack of understanding around mental health and miscommunication about terms and words and maybe having an assembly or period to inform people about these things to reduce that confusion

    • People who do suffer from mental health shouldn’t need to feel that they have to out themselves to stand up for themselves

    • There was a post made anonymously on Facebook about the word triggered which is now used as a slang word for being angered by something but the word has mental health connotations and there was discussion centered around that post

    • We need to have a more healthy dialogue because I have heard people joking about other’s mental illness

    • This is related to the discussion about political correctness and the balance between respectful words and free speech

    • We could talk about integrating awareness about certain terms into health class

    • There is a lack of understanding around mental health and I’ve seen it in others and I’ve seen it in me

    • This is a discussion that places of education are having and we need to have it

    • This isn’t an issue we necessarily need to legislate but we need to discuss it

    • Having the discussion in health class means it doesn’t reach the freshmen

    • We can’t put all the social issues of the school into health class and overload the curriculum because it is only a semester class

    • We need to empower students to stand up as bystanders because adults doing it won’t change anything

    • We need to talk to programs looking to educate younger students on this topic because it doesn’t just start when students reach high school

    • It would be more productive for Council to separate the issues of mental health and political correctness because both issues overlap but also extend beyond

    • What I understood from the Facebook discussion was it wasn’t lack of education but people not valuing the importance of mental health

    • This discussion should be brought to the entire school

    • Maybe Council should suggest that more departments have person emergency days which some teachers now offer or create a place in guidance or the nurse’s office where students would go in that case

    • Raise awareness among the staff about the way they model behavior for students when they do things like carry around two cups of coffee

    • If you are interested in getting Mental Health First Aid Training speak to someone in the Suicide Awareness Committee

    • Clinical definition of triggered is when a survivor of trauma is reminded of their experience because of something like words or a description and that is a terrible experience and students don’t understand that but having an organic conversation helps people understand

    • People are not trying to be malicious, they just don’t understand

    • Try to discuss this in Common Ground to create a healthy discussion

    • An idea of a way to reduce stress would be to create a form similar to a goldenrod for a personal day that would follow the same procedure but would be limited to use only a few times a year when there is something after school consuming a lot of time and causing students stress

  • Meeting Adjourns