All students have experienced days when school seems particularly stressful. They might need a few minutes of quiet, a place to reset, but it can be difficult to find this kind of space in the small building of Uni High.
Luckily, the Student Services Office (SSO) counselors are working on a solution.
Room 312, the former Japanese Room, is being transformed into this calm and peaceful environment. The project was launched mid-semester of Spring 2023 by the SSO counselors, Kristi Deedrick and Amy Han, and the school psychology intern at the time, Keeley Hynes. Ms. Keeley had been the one originally tasked with the project, but after she left, Ms. Amy, Ms. Deedrick, and the Student Support Team, a group of faculty and counselors, are now in charge.
The room was first established as a Sensory Room.
“There were some students who had some sensory needs that we didn’t necessarily have the space or resources for in just the SSO,” says Ms. Amy. Other schools also have Sensory Rooms, and the counselors felt it would be helpful to bring this environment to Uni as well.
Uni’s sensory room, which the counselors are hoping to re-title to the more inclusive name of the “Wellness Room,” includes weighted blankets, bean bag chairs, soothing lighting, fidgets, coloring pages, markers, and other activities and tools to help students de-stress.
So far, it has been used exclusively by students in greater need of this kind of space, but Ms. Amy and Ms. Deedrick are working on opening the room to the general Uni community.
The official rules and regulations of the room have yet to be announced, but Ms. Amy says, “The two uses of the room would be one for the general student population as a calm-down space. Another is like a de-escalation space for students who are in crisis.”
They plan for students to use the room fifteen minutes at a time, with more time being allotted if needed. A member of the Student Support Team will be in the room at all times for supervision.
Students will let the SSO know that they are in need of the Sensory/Wellness room by filling out a form through a QR code in the offices of the Student Support Team. Some of these members include Office Support Specialist Martha Mills, Senior Library Specialist Paul Kotheimer, and Office Manager Sheree Denham. There may be a chance that several individuals will have to share the room, but students will also have the opportunity to let the SSO know their needs through the form.
The counselors say that the Sensory/Wellness Room is still a work in progress, but they will continue to develop the room to suit the needs of students — different kinds of furniture, more activities, etc. Most importantly, the room is meant to help students, to give them a small oasis from the busy ramble of school life.
As Ms. Deedrick says, “Sometimes you just need a minute alone […] just having a space where you don’t have to talk to anybody, take a few minutes to breathe it out […] there’s not a lot of spaces like that in our school […] having a more relaxed space to do that is the goal.”