Mental health continues to be a central discussion as the Warwick School Board last week approved teaming up with two different healthcare providers to advance mental health programs in the district, eliciting debate from the board and residents.
Board Member Leslie Penkunas presented a recommendation at the Feb. 22 school board meeting from the Education Committee to approve a pilot program for ninth-graders called “Breaking the Silence,” a one-day class offered through York-based Byrnes Health Education Center to focus on mental health topics covered by the secondary school counseling department.
According to Byrnes’s website, the “Breaking the Silence” program “aims to increase awareness about mental health by sharing factual information to help minimize the stigmas that surround this topic. Students can gain insight into the prevalence and basic signs and symptoms of common mental illnesses including depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.”
Penkunas said Warwick school counselor Marianne Brobst shared information with the Education Committee on Feb. 13 about Byrnes Health and the program, saying “Breaking the Silence” would be offered over one day for all ninth-grade students and take place in history classes. The committee was told the program typically costs $5,700, but there would be no cost this year because it would be funded by the Ryan C. Brubaker Foundation.
Penkunas said the Education Committee also received a presentation where members saw the education units and what would be discussed in the program.
“I have worked with the Byrnes Foundation in the past, in a previous lifetime, on a couple of projects,” Penkunas said. “I have the utmost confidence in the program, and I think that it’s going to be really valuable for our ninth graders.”
Board Member Emily Zimmerman, who is also on the Education Committee, said she recognizes the importance of mental health support and education in the district. But when Zimmerman began looking into some of the information associated with the “Breaking the Silence” program, she said she found some things that “caused me pause.”
Zimmerman said some of the mental health illness identifications listed by Byrnes on its website concerned her, including listing autism and Tourette syndrome as mental illnesses.
“Are we bringing the most qualified people into our classroom if we’re identifying these two things, in particular, as mental illnesses?” Zimmerman said. “I actually spoke to a professional in this field. They’re called neurodivergent disabilities. You could label them disorders, they are not mental illnesses. And I just have some extreme concerns for the families in our school district that do have students that have either autism or Tourette syndrome that would be engaging this program. That information is actually not accurate that we are pushing out to our students.”
Zimmerman brought up the cost of the program, saying the district would have to find a way to pay for it after the pilot program financing through the Brubaker Foundation ended. Zimmerman expressed questions about the presentation itself, unable to see the actual presentation and how the information is presented to the students.
Zimmerman said she was also concerned by one of the potential assignments offered by Byrnes in the “Breaking the Silence” program, including one where students are asked to write a pro or con editorial how they would feel if a group home would come into their neighborhood. She said the assignment seemed “very insensitive” to some of the district students.
“I was kind of taken aback by that, because I know that we have students in our district that they themselves or have family members that utilize group homes,” Zimmerman said. “To ask classmates to stand up against those individuals just felt extremely insensitive to me.”
Board member Nelson Peters asked district staff what the driver was to look at the Byrnes class as a pilot program and what outcomes in the curriculum were anticipated to be accomplished.
Warwick Assistant Superintendent Dr. Melanie Calender said the school counselors currently do a unit for all ninth-graders on mental health. She said part of what is covered is the destigmatization of mental health and labels, and the program was brought to the Education Committee to consider “an opportunity to cover some of that material in more detail by an outside provider, not necessarily the people that the students are always used to hearing from.”
Warwick Superintendent Dr. April Hershey said she agreed with Zimmerman’s questions over the “mischaracterization” of autism and Tourette syndrome as mental issues. Hershey said that information was contained on a worksheet that could be used as a resource in the program, “but we would never use that.”
“Our mental health professionals would be looking at all of that material and choosing what would be appropriate to be used,” Hershey said.
Zimmerman said she was “grateful” that the district would not move forward in sharing that information with teachers, but she said simply including it as an option was worrying.
“What is the rest of the information that will be shared with our students?” Zimmerman said. “Is it accurate? It speaks to a level of competency that I’m just concerned about.”
Penkunas said Byrnes is a “very reputable” organization that the district had utilized in the past. She pointed to a program, “Drugs 101: What Parents Need to Know,” that was offered by Byrnes and presented to Warwick parents that included a mock bedroom scene depicting teenage drug abuse.
Several school board members asked if a vote could be delayed until more information on the organization and the program could be gathered. Board members were told a vote had to be taken because of scheduling issues with Byrnes, approving the pilot program in an 8-1 vote with Zimmerman voting against it.
LGH Memorandum
Besides the Byrnes Health program, the school board unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with Lancaster General Hospital for services as part of the Joining Forces for Children Family Advocate Services (FA Services).
The FA Services support children and families impacted by substance use, according to the memorandum, and LGH secured funds for the services to be implemented across Lancaster County. Warwick requested FA Services from LGH “to provide individual and group psychoeducation to children impacted by substance use” for students and families.
As part of the program, the memorandum said, a family advocate will meet with youth and/or families individually to provide skill building, resource coordination and advocacy. The topics of education include “addiction, treatment, recovery, science of hope, healthy coping skills, communication skills, refusal skills and problem solving.”
Lititz resident Veronica Meyer expressed concerns with entering into a memorandum of understanding with LGH, saying previous recommendations from the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic were problematic.
“I feel like they have given you guidance in the past that has added to this learning loss that we’re dealing with here right now at the school,” Meyer said. “I know it has to do with COVID, but I believe that they were some of the ones that were giving the recommendations as far as quarantining both sick and healthy kids, which kept kids out of school.”
Peters said he appreciated the comments made by Meyer, but he wanted to emphasize that LGH is a “reputable professional organization.”
“We support them as a professional advocate at times, but always under the perspective of making sure that our parents and our students are properly cared for,” Peters said.
Staff writer Michael Yoder is an award-winning journalist who has been honored with several Keystone Press Awards for his investigative pieces.
Spot on, great article. I was there, you covered this well. Thanks Mike. Im going to share this.
Great news! I’m glad to see Warwick is taking mental health seriously.