Midvale – On Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 2:30 p.m., there was an event called “Breaking the Silence” in the hosting room at Hillcrest High School.
Freshman Joshya Yerrapureddy and Sophomores Jaden Ngo and Rushil Vislawath are with the club Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), they were tasked with creating a social media account to help bring awareness to mental health.
“We put together the social as an event to unite the Hillcrest community and bring awareness to the stigmatization of mental health, why it is bad, and why we should stop it.” said Vislawath. The social event turned out better than expected. With around 45 students showing up, it shocked all three organizers.
“We got a committee to help put everything together, we worked with HOSA which is another club, we had to talk to several people to make sure we had permission to do the social. We made a presentation and hung flyers to promote the activity.” explained Yerrapureddy. “We were expecting 20-30 people to show up, we weren’t sure if we had enough food. But it was amazing
to see.” Shared Ngo.
When it comes to a guest speaker, they reached out to the school psychiatrist, Rebecca Brown, to share with the group. Brown shared tips on how students can support their peers. Some tips that were shared were to, “Listen with curiosity, not to solve a problem and to reflect what the person says.”
Brown made sure to inform the students that “It is not on you to solve it for them.” Yerrapureddy, Ngo, and Vislawath were all really glad Brown spoke at the event. “She really went over the things we wanted to go more in depth with, some things that we probably aren’t qualified to talk about as students,” shared Ngo.
Freshman Charles Easton attended the social on Wednesday because they and people they knows have struggled with mental health before. They really enjoyed the guest speaker, Brown. “Ms.Brown is a really cool person and I love the activities we got to do” explained Easton
Sophomore Megan Openshaw attended the activity because she is a part of the hope squad and feels this topic is really important. “I really liked learning about how to help people who are struggling.”
Sophomore Leah Simon assisted with some of the organization for the social event, and she believes that Breaking the Silence is a key factor in addressing the mental health crisis in America. “I really enjoyed specifically how they talked about listening and not solving”. Simon, Openshaw and Easton both expressed that events like these are ones that more students should be attending in the future. Breaking the Silence wishes to have another activity before winter break.
Visit their Instagram account for more information: @break.ingthe_stigma on Instagram. “Breaking the stigma and talking about it so no one feels left out or excluded.”