Littleton Independent 1022

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October 22, 2020

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

LittletonIndependent.net

VOLUME 75 | ISSUE 52

Pandemic complicates study on mental health Long-term study by sociologist moving forward at LPS under strange circumstances BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Ezekiel Tiprigan, who will turn 1 just in time for Halloween, leans on a kid-size pumpkin.

PHOTOS BY DAVID GILBERT

Pumpkins a hot commodity at museum BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Gourds were rolling out of the Littleton Museum’s pasture by the wagonload on Oct. 15, as families loaded up on soon-to-be jack-o’lanterns. “It’s 2 p.m. and I’m already up to 164 pumpkins sold today,” said Pat Rodriguez, a volunteer with the Friends of the Littleton Museum and Library, the group the pumpkin patch raises money for. “Lots of families have been coming here for years, but this year it’s extra special. People are just happy to be out doing something.” That includes the Tiprigan family, who loaded their double-wide stroller with pumpkins bound for front porch duty. “We tried to grow some in the

The Koch family hauls off their load. garden, and we got all of one,” said Elissa Tiprigan. “I think that one is

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 31

going to become a pie. That’s fine, because the kids love it here.”

Last year, sociology professor Dr. Anna Mueller and her colleagues embarked on a study of how young people’s social connections relate to suicide prevention, planning to focus on a couple normal school years in Littleton and Mesa County public schools. But 2020 has been anything but normal. Just months into the study, the COVID-19 panMueller demic shut down schools to in-person learning, causing the greatest reorganizing of public schooling in modern history. Now, Mueller says, the task is to understand and factor in the impact of the pandemic, and craft a report that provides useful conclusions out of a tumultuous time. “It literally is a massive tragedy that hit all of these schools at once,” Mueller told the Littleton school board in an Oct. 8 workshop. “They all have to figure ways to cope with this. We don’t need to make this into a catastrophe, but I think there’s enough evidence that this pandemic is quite hard for mental health.” Mueller said she cannot yet divulge emerging trends from her research SEE STUDY, P8

DON’T BE TRICKED

There are plenty of ways to have a happy Halloween amid the pandemic

P14


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