Issue 9

Page 1

Volume 52, Issue 9

Friday, May 3, 2013

The voice of Prospect since 1960

Math teacher Martha Kelly ran the Boston Marathon on April 15. Read her story about the tragic bombings on.... ProspectorNow.com

THE

ROSPECTOR

Struggling within Help for students with mental illness increases, but still stereotypes exist By Maggie Devereux Editor-in-Chief

*Name has been changed for confidentiality

Mary Williams* began feeling depressed in eighth grade. As her feelings progressed, so did her desire to hurt herself. When she began to cut, she started with her arms and thighs, but eventually began cutting in visible places. It became her way to show people she wanted help. “I made some really bad decisions in that time,” Williams said. “I had a boyfriend; I broke up with him because I was going to kill myself. That happened a couple times. Not that [depression] ruined my high school time, it just made it a lot different than what I was hoping it would be. I was hoping to go out and have a lot of friends and participate in school and stuff, but that just didn’t happen. I just wanted to be at home and in bed.” Senior Nina Hermes can trace her depression back to when she was a child. At times, she placed impossibly high standards on herself, dealt with anxiety and had trouble making friends. Her feelings continued to worsen in middle school where she was bullied and her freshman year of high school when she felt she failed to live up to her expectations. “I have always just felt very, very alone since childhood,” Hermes said. “No one’s perfect, but I expected myself to be.”

It was freshman year when she began cutting to find relief. During her sophomore year, she began to cope with her depression through alcohol. While other kids began “social drinking,” Hermes did it to numb out anything she was feeling. More adolescents than ever before are struggling with mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, one in 5 children, either currently or at some point during their life, have had a seriously debilitating mental disorder. During their junior years, both Hermes and Williams did seek help. In November of her junior year, Williams entered Alexian Brothers adolescent inpatient facility, which at the time she didn’t know the name of due to the amount of medication she was on. She spent 12 days there, which began her road to recovery. Hermes began therapy sophomore year but didn’t open up and receive the kind of help she needed. Heading into junior year, her drinking problem increased and she developed an eating disorder. After her last final junior year, Hermes headed straight to the hospital and entered the inpatient program through Alexian Brothers for 10 days. That was followed by about a month of a partial hospitalization program, where she spent days in the hospital and nights at home. “I think [inpatient treatment] is one of the best things you can do,” Williams said. “It’s [with] kids who are going through the same thing as you. Sometimes people are like ‘oh that’s a bad thing, you’re putting them in there and they’re going to get ideas.’ But everyone is there for the same reason:

See MENTAL HEALTH, page 2

graphic by Ian Magnuson

End of year awards recognize excellence By Brian Park

Executive In-Depth Editor As the seniors get ready to graduate, those who have shown commitment to their classes, sports or activities will be given awards to recognize their hard work during the last four years. The senior medallions are given to seniors who have excelled in a subject all four years of high school, the Hannon Award given for leadership, and the Best of D214 Award given for fine arts.

Senior Medallions

Senior Medallions will be given out to seniors in 34 categories ranging from orchestra to mathematics to physical education at the Honors Assembly on May 29 in the fieldhouse. According to Associate Principal Greg Minter, who organizes the Honors Assembly, each of the senior medallion winners are decided by a group of teachers within the department relating to

their subject. “The winners represent what that division or department thinks of as being the top student or top person in that area over the course of four years,” Minter said. “It’s someone who’s shown exemplary academic pursuit [and] curiosity; it’s not just based on grades.” For example, the mathematics award winner will be selected by math teacher Maggie Mamsch and other 90s level math teachers. To be considered for the award, a student must have taken AP Calc BC, AP Statistics or possibly Calc III and they may have participated in math team. Additionally, the mathematics award winner will automatically be awarded the Deborah Korcek scholarship. English teacher Allyson Kreutzer has been a part of the decision-making process for the English senior medallion for seven years while teaching AP Literature, and the difficulty of making the decision varies from year to year.

“Sometimes there is a person who obviously should be [the winner]; it’s very clear,” Kreutzer said. “Sometimes I have a number of students who are all doing equally good work and then it becomes much more difficult to choose.”

Hannon Awards

The Hannon Awards recognized students from all across District 214 (D214) who have demonstrated leadership throughout an activity or sport all four years of high school. Organized by Rolling Meadows’ Student Council this year, the awards were presented at Maggiano’s in Schaumburg on April 24 fitting the theme of National Leadership Week the week before, but only administration members, invited award winners and guests could attend. Originally called the D214 Leadership Luncheon, it was

See AWARDS, page 3

‘On edge’ Yearbooks will be distributed on May 16. To find out what went on behind the scenes of the creation of this year’s book, see...

7 Features

Nightlife of the Prospect teenager

Nighttime activities are increasing in popularity among teenagers. To read about the dangers and tips for being safe turn to...

8-9 In-Depth

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