n Sunday, April 14, the school put on the very first Suicide Prevention Walk. This walk provided awareness for mental health and a safe place for students to share their experiences and feelings with suicide and mental illnesses.

“As society knows, mental health is evolving and people are becoming more aware of it and more and more students are struggling,” crisis counselor Melissa Tishy said. “Last year after we had a couple of students who completed suicide, [mental illness] was obviously something that was touching our student body and they were ready to stand up and say something and do something.”

The walk had tables for students to talk with mental health companies, games and tables with poems, artwork and articles made by students showing their feelings about mental health.

“I think [bringing awareness to mental health] will be beneficial to students now because they are going to feel like they are being heard,” Tishy said. “I think for students in the future, it is going to be even more of an impact because it is going to be something we say as you are walking in the doors as a freshman, that we recognize that mental health is a concern and we are doing something about it. So not only are we addressing your needs in the day to day here at school, but we are going above and beyond that and we want to get not only our population here at west high but the district population and the community involved so that we can have more resources available and be able to meet the needs of anybody who is struggling with mental health.”