What is the Wellness Center?

Located in P-231, the Wellness Center allows students to seek professional mental health services, destress with friends, engage in activities designed for relaxation and have a quick snack. 

Around 300 students visit the center each day for therapy appointments, quick breaks, eating lunch and relaxing, according Wellness Coordinator Michelle Ramos. Students can drop in at any time between 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, including class time. The center is also open to those enrolled in summer school. When the Wellness Center is closed, students are directed to Allcove in Palo Alto, which is a separate wellness center. 

If a student needs to connect with a therapist, they can either have a drop-in session or refer themselves to their counselor or Ramos for ongoing therapy sessions. 

For drop-in sessions, students are prompted to fill out a short form on an iPad by the entrance so that the wellness team is aware of their needs. They are connected to a therapist right away if  one is available. 

Students have up to three drop-in sessions without officially notifying anyone. Counselors may be notified in case of academic concerns or stressors, and parents may also be notified unless they are a barrier to mental health. However, according to Ramos, about 97% of students who believe that their parents are against therapy find their parents to be supportive. All content during therapy sessions always remains confidential with a few exceptions. 

The Wellness Center’s staff is comprised of Ramos, Wellness Outreach Specialist Rosie Castillo who focuses on promoting the center and mental health, Mental Health and Wellness Associate Dani Warren, Mental Health and Wellness Therapist Paul Hickey and PAUSD Mental Health and Wellness Therapist Brittney Tabel who provide counseling services to Gunn students.

Over the past school year, the Wellness Center has organized various activities, ranging from decorating sugar cookies and painting to bringing animals on campus. These events not only help students hang out and unwind, but also destigmatize mental health struggles.

“People tend to internalize (their emotions) because they believe that no one else understands what it is like or no one else is feeling that way,” Castillo said. 

According to Castillo, destigmatizing mental health issues will make students more willing to reach out for help. 

“We wouldn’t shame anyone for going to the doctor for getting an annual breast exam for breast cancer,” she said. “Why would we want people to feel ashamed that they have to seek support for therapy?” 

Student response to the Wellness Center

Results from the Panorama Survey from fall of 2023 show that 56% of respondents have often felt sad and 31% respondents often felt worried, increasing from fall of 2022 by 12% and 6% respectively . 

 For junior Mia Saad, who visits the center once a week, the Wellness Center is a safe space.

“I go whenever there are drop-ins to take a break or for food,” she said. “Talking to people is nice, especially therapists, and it is also just a quiet place to relax. They (therapists) help you clear your mind and help you look at other thought processes. If you have issues, then you can think and scroll down on your own thoughts, but they can help you think from a different perspective.”

However, some students believed that the Wellness Center lacked visibility, making students feel unsure of utilizing the center for their mental health needs. One such student is sophomore Milcah Morrison, who upon coming to Gunn, recalled the Wellness Center being only briefly mentioned during the freshmen orientation.

“It wasn’t enough information for me to be like, ‘Oh, I can go there. That’s a safe place,’” she said. “If we invest more into wellness and mental health, I think that people will definitely start to consider going there in general.”

Although the center originally had a 15-minute time limit placed as an agreement by stakeholders when the center was first established, the mandate was lifted after a student’s death. It is planned to  remain lifted for the rest of the school year and transition back in the fall of the 2024-25 school year. 

“We knew that some students were in grief or just upset, and we wanted to make sure that they didn’t feel rushed to go back to class,” Ramos said. 

With varying usage of the center, Freshman Tim Landt prefers to use the center for a quiet study space and finds these rules beneficial for self-control. 

“The no-electronics rule helps me stay on task without being distracted on my phone,” he said. 

According to freshman Isabella Cruz, many teachers have been supportive toward students visiting the Wellness Center during class to take a break. Students can ask their teachers to write them a pass during class or ask a wellness staff member to notify their teacher through email.  

“(Teachers) are always saying, ‘Feel free to go to the Wellness Center whenever you need to,’” she said.

Growth and future development of the Wellness Center

Moving forward, the Wellness team wishes to continue to promote student mental health and well-being, with an emphasis on normalizing mental illnesses and reducing stigma around the discussion of mental health. 

“As students go through their high school career, maybe the juniors and seniors are finally opening up to us since we are familiar with them,” Ramos said. “But then, (the issue is), as the next group comes in, we have to kind of start all over.”

The wellness team has also been working closely with the Parent Teacher Student Association to set goals for the upcoming years and plan mental health education workshops. 

“We also want to have parents share their concerns with us, since not all students come to us,” Ramos said. “But if we can impart some guidance and tools to parents, maybe they can take it home for their students.” 

Since the death of a student, the wellness team has made efforts to become more visible and promote their resources. Recently, the team has made an Instagram account, @gunnwellnesscenter, with information on how to sign in for a drop-in session and how to make the most out of the Wellness Center space. The team has also set up tables in the senior quad during lunch with activities promoting mental health and designed a logo for the wellness team. 

“We want shirts with our logo sign so that everybody knows, ‘Oh, this is the wellness team and these are the people that we are going to talk to when we are in distress or upset,’” Ramos said.

The team also wants to work more closely with other departments, including the admin and the counseling team, to communicate about students’ concerns and ways to implement more help. 

The wellness team has seen growth in the number of students in the center, with over 1500 visits in the past two months. Castillo shares that she has come across more people addressing mental health issues and helping their peers. 

“We have more occurrences of people coming up to the Wellness Center and being like, ‘Hey, I don’t know this person but they posted this on social media and I’m concerned about them. It seems kind of serious,’ or even (helping) their friends (by saying), ‘Hey, my friend sent this text message yesterday and I’m worried about them. Could you please check in on them?’” she said. “I feel like this represents how you guys are just so insightful, aware and have really good instincts when to seek out support for your friends. As a student population, you guys are so resilient, and I think it speaks out about what you guys are involved in and push through.” 

To reach out to the wellness team, email gunnwellnessteam@pausd.org or fill out this form.

Gallery • 8 Photos

Chloe Wu

On Friday, Feb. 23, students skipped SELF and Study Hall to participate in a walkout, gathering on the football field to discuss student mental health in the aftermath of Tuesday’s student death. 

During the meeting, student organizers freshman Aya Gurevich and sophomore Milcah Morrison directed students to sit at the center of the field, where they proceeded to speak about Gunn and district wellness measures. Students were then invited to come up and speak about their own thoughts and frustrations. Toward the end of the meeting, Principal Wendy Stratton brought three boxes of pizza for the participants, part of a Parent Teacher Student Association gift for all Gunn students.

Attendees learned about the event through social media. According to Gurevich, Morrison proposed coordinating a walkout after seeing his Instagram story suggesting that students “boycott SELF.” As the word spread, students were encouraged to show up in green, a color symbolizing mental health awareness. 

“It’s just kind of to get teachers and staff and the administration to notice that what they’re doing isn’t working, and kids aren’t happy with it,” Gurevich told The Oracle. “At 15 years old, I experienced, in my school, somebody died. That’s something that shouldn’t happen.”

Although the event was promoted as a boycott, Morrison cautioned against using such labeling: The event’s goal wasn’t to condemn the school, but rather to foster discourse. 

“You can’t blame staff, you can’t blame the Board,” she told The Oracle. “You can’t blame the people that are just here from their nine to five … I’m sure it’s great that we have activities out there to help people, but we really need to sit down and just talk about it.”

According to Stratton, conversations with the crisis response team — including counselors and therapists — made it evident that students needed an outlet, and the walkout seemed like a peaceful way for them to express their emotions. 

“We know that we need a community response, and we don’t want to inhibit students who have a need right now — especially coming into the weekend on a Friday — to connect and work through whatever they’re going through,” she said. “So my feeling — and our feeling — was to give them space to do that.” 

After Morrison and Gurevich spoke, the attendees were invited to come up and share their perspectives. Those present expressed wide-ranging frustrations — critiquing Gunn’s academic culture alongside Wellness Center guidelines and SELF lessons — and shared their experiences, both in speeches to the rest of the group and in interviews with The Oracle.

“SELF is more of a Band-Aid solution,” freshman Dante Chung told The Oracle. “It’s generalized mental health care, and that’s not what mental health care support is supposed to be about.” 

While SELF Coordinator Kathryn Catalano anticipates that the SELF program will continue to adapt based on feedback, she added that mental-health guidance and resources may not be within the program’s purview: It was established in 2017 to address California’s social-emotional learning standards.

“It’s important to note that the SELF program, it focuses on social emotional skills,” she said. “While there is, of course, a lot of overlap between that and having strong mental health resources and things of that nature, that’s not what the SELF program was established for.”

Other students, including sophomore Noam Morris, addressed Gunn’s academic culture, telling The Oracle that offhand comments — such as saying “I’m going to kill myself” after getting a bad grade on a test — trivialize mental health struggles.

“I think we as a community really need to come together and start working towards giving those topics the respect they deserve, talking about them in a more healthy way,” he said.

Some speakers requested a day to memorialize the student who died. While current district policy doesn’t ban memorials, it does prioritize protecting vulnerable students. “Suicide contagion can be instigated with the death of an individual, even if the death is not due to suicide,” the policy reads. “Therefore, schools must respond to all school community deaths in a thoughtful and similar manner that maximizes safety and carefully considers the impact of memorialization on participants and the broader community.”

To bolster student voice, Stratton called several students to her office this morning — ASB President senior Nathan Levy; SEC Special Events Commissioner senior Ruth Jaquette; School Board Representative senior Chris Lee (who is also a managing editor for The Oracle); SEC Wellness Commissioner senior Daniel van Schewick; Reach Out, Care, Know Club President junior Beverly Lamis; and ROCK board member junior Grace Missett — to arrange a Listening Session Event. The event will take place during an extended lunch on Tuesday, Feb. 27, in the Acorn Lounge, next to the library. 

During the session, students will have an opportunity to share thoughts, concerns and suggestions in the wake of the student death. Students can submit input, concerns and questions that they want administrators to address to this form. 

The goal of administrators and students alike, however, is to provide robust support systems during this time. 

“Be there for your friends first and foremost — that is what matters,” junior Gene Chumakov, who attended the walkout, told The Oracle. “Because this isn’t just an issue of admin not doing enough. This is an issue of students not caring for each other, and having such a lack of faith in the resources and the therapists that we’ve been provided.”

The Oracle has since conducted investigations into wellness measures at Gunn in a continuation of its 2019 “In Pursuit of Wellness” series. Part I, an investigation into SELF, can be found here.

If you are worried about yourself or a friend, contact the National Suicide Prevention lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Wellness Center, suicidepreventionlifeline.org, a therapist, a doctor or a school counselor. If the threat is immediate, call 911.

Morrison has overcome the challenges of a tumultuous childhood and home life to pursue music, and has showcased her singing everywhere, from football games to international cruises. Her musical journey began at the age of 5, when she joined a local Russian choir group. In elementary and middle school, she supplemented her vocal skills by learning the violin and cello. She joined the school choir in seventh grade, dropping out briefly before joining Gunn’s choir during her freshman year.

Even before joining choir or picking up an instrument, creativity had always been a crucial part of Morrison’s life. “I have had a troubled childhood with domestic violence and lots of abuse in my household, so I’ve always expressed my creativity as a sort of coping mechanism,” she said. “I remember when I was younger, when me and my mom would get into arguments, I would make up little songs about it and sing it out to help myself (calm down).”

Growing up, challenges such as abuse, foster care and homelessness hindered Morrison’s musical involvement. “I was homeless for 4.5 years, so we couldn’t afford music lessons — we could barely afford gas to get me and my sister to school,” she said. “I felt like I could not express (myself) or let everyone hear my voice because it felt like something was always in the way. I also missed school a lot, so I had to really focus on my education before focusing on my music.”

In freshman year, due to home difficulties and peer pressure, Morrison would skip classes — even choir, the only class she felt she could express herself in. It wasn’t until choir teacher Bill Liberatore sat down with her toward the start of the year, threatening to remove her from class, that she received a wake-up call. “Mr. Lib scheduled a meeting with me and my foster mother and basically said, ‘Why skip? You can get credit if you just participate,’” Morrison said. “He was encouraging me to not just waste my high school career skipping class. After that, I realized, ‘Okay, I need to stop skipping choir. I need to get my stuff together.’”

Morrison began focusing on music more seriously and has made many public singing appearances since, performing in downtown Mountain View, a Palo Alto church, a New York subway and many other locations. She has had solos in performances inside and outside of school and performed the “Star-Spangled Banner” at football games, including the first home game on Aug. 24 and another on Sept. 8.

In June, Morrison and her foster family vacationed on a European cruise called Taulk, in which they toured France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands. One night, after the boat docked in Germany, she sang the song “I’m Here” by Cynthia Erivo at an open-mic night for a restaurant. Afterward, she was formally asked to perform for the guests for the next three nights. Morrison felt that this opportunity elevated her skill as a singer. “Doing the cruise, getting input from so many different people from different countries definitely inspired me,” she said. “Because when I get on stage, I have this power: I command 100% of the attention of the room, and I’m the only one who’s able to control the power coming out of my mouth. I can set the tone for the whole room.”

Morrison also recently auditioned for American Idol, an American singing competition television series. Over her Zoom audition on Aug. 14, Morrison sang the same song she did in Germany: “I’m Here” by Cynthia Erivo.

This audition had long been on her bucket list. “I auditioned right when I turned 15, since that was the minimum (age requirement),” Morrison said. “Honestly, it was my dream to be on a big show like this. And I just thought, ‘Why not?’ If you make it, you make it, and if you don’t, you don’t.”

After a weeklong waiting period, Morrison finally heard back: Although she met the minimum age requirement and they were extremely impressed with her performance, American Idol was looking for a contestant with an “adult mindset,” meaning someone who was willing to take on this responsibility and fully adapt to a brand-new lifestyle — something Milcah had indicated she wasn’t ready to do.

Despite her disappointment, Morrison took the rejection in stride. “Once you’re in the industry, you’re kind of stuck there,” she said. “So for me, if I do make it, I’m risking my whole childhood. And I really didn’t really have a childhood to begin with, so I’m not going to take the risk and have to throw away the rest of it.”

Although Morrison plans on giving American Idol another chance when she’s a bit older, she also wants school to be a priority. If she had been accepted, she would have been afraid of falling behind in school again, since the travel involved in the competition would interfere with her attendance. “You’re expected to provide your own education,” Morrison said. “I would have to depend on the school and my teachers to send me work from class and future lessons. (American Idol) would be very time-consuming.”

In the meantime, Morrison will continue to pursue her passions and urge other students who have experienced similar obstacles in their personal and school lives to do the same. “I want people to read this and be like, ‘Okay, this is a person that has been through a lot and is able to overcome their trauma, work through everything and do something that they love,’” she said. “I would definitely say that if you are interested in something, explore it, and take every opportunity you can find.”

Morrison is grateful for not only the solo-performance opportunities that have taught her the logistics of an audition process and given her stage experience, but also the Gunn choir, which has provided techniques for her to harness the power in her voice. “I would honestly say that singing has saved me,” she said. “Being in the Gunn choir has saved me, and music has saved my life.”