[/media-credit] Orem High School Counselor, Jana Houle.
This is an interview our staff conducted with Orem High counselor, Jana Houle, about the Mountain View stabbing. After the interview, she concluded that she really wanted our staff to emphasize: “That there are resources available. This isn’t just about the Mountain View situation. Everyone has a breaking point. Several students are going through anxiety and depression. You’re not alone. There are resources to help–come talk to us. Today, you’ll see Hope Squad wearing their shirts. Students need to watch out for each other and let us know if they see someone who needs help.”
Below are the previously asked questions and her responses about the incident.
Q: When did you first hear about the incident?
A: Yesterday [Tuesday] morning. A parent had texted one of the counselors and said, ‘Hey, do you know what’s going on at Mountain View?’. And then we were able to see some news reports. And that was when we first heard it. It was right around 8-8:15 yesterday morning.
Q; So it wasn’t administration over there that told you anything?
A: Not us specifically. Our administration already knew about it. But us as counselors had found out that way. Cause they were probably still in the mix. I mean, when something like this happens a schoo,l personnel is not worried about calling other schools to say, ‘Hey we’re on lockdown.’ Unless someone from that school usually would find out, because kids are texting their parents. That was the least of their worries yesterday was contacting surrounding schools and saying, ‘Guess what, we’re on lockdown’.
Q: What was your first thought when you heard the news?
A; Sad. It breaks my heart for all people involved. For whatever purpose or whatever reasons that student was dealing with something. It was just a way of crying out for help. Unfortunately other people got hurt. It’s just sad for everyone involved. Students, parents, everyone, the community. It’s just a sad thing.
Q: Do you know if counseling has been provided for the students?
A: Yes. When an incident like this happens there’s a crisis team in the district. Other resources from different schools are sent over there. Plus we have social workers. Mountain View has a full time social worker. Here at Orem, we have a part time social worker who’s here Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And then throughout the district there’s several social workers. And all of those resources were sent to Mountain View. As wells as their counselors and other counselors from junior highs that feed into them, because a lot of them know the kids personally because they’ve been at their schools–go and assist at the location. They were all located in the auditorium. So kids could go meet as groups or talk as an individual. And they don’t usually pool from surrounding schools or like a high school. Because we will deal with the aftermath over here. Some of our students have siblings that go there and a lot of you guys have friends you went to elementary school through junior high with because our borders are so close. A lot of kids can be affected at the neighboring schools–high schools–so they usually pull from the junior high counselors to go help with triage as well. But there’s a district crisis team.
Q; Do you have an estimate of how many Orem students were at Mountain View at the time?
A: No. I know we have several of our students from Orem there that had parents go check them out, because they were doing a school to school. But I have no idea the amount of students.
Q: How have you as a faculty coped with the news personally?
A: We talk about it. Everyone deals with it differently. But really talking about it, the biggest thing as a faculty is to determine ‘okay, what would we do in that situation?.’ So Mr. Browning, us as counselors, sent out an email notification to faculty/staff yesterday saying, ‘Hey, watch out for kids. If you notice anyone, send them down to us’. Or sometimes they have family members that go to school there that were impacted by it. So sometimes the adults need help as well. But by talking about it, coming up with plans, that’s why we have drills. That’s why we have a safety committee. And then always talking about ways to keep kids safe. I know that as adults in the building it’s really helpful to know the exact protocol. That’s why it’s so important to run those drills. So when a situation happens, it isn’t ‘what do we do?’, we just do it. And that’s why it’s important, why you see teachers out in the halls in between classes. That’s why you see administration and different people out and about in the halls making sure kids are safe. But there are certain people who as an adult they need to talk to somebody as well.
Q: How can Orem High support Mountain View students?
A: We are here to help with whatever they need. We were in conversation with the counselors yesterday at Mountain view saying, ‘Whatever you guys need, we are available to help in any way’. Again, being here to help our own students because of the direct connection with each other. You guys are all I mean family members, friends. Everyone wants to know that even though we’re rivals, we all want everyone to be safe. So we’re here to support if Mountain View has additional needs for us to come over and help we’re more than happy to. I know our principals have been communicating and finding out what we can do to help. If they have more kids than they know what to do with, again, there’s the crisis plan, the crisis team from the district, and those resources will be available as long as they need to be. But we’re here to support Mountain View students, our students, The biggest thing is letting kids know there are resources and things here at our school to help them. Even if they just want to talk about it. Kids will process this differently. As counselors we’re here, our social worker is here, you can talk to teachers and then teachers can send them down to us–whatever the situation we’re here to help any way we can.
Emma Jacob
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