NORMALCY ALLAYS MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS

A Sense of Normalcy Allays Mental Health Concerns

By Dawn Chmura, Director of Communications

In a year where the COVID-19 pandemic impacted students’ mental health worldwide, students at Rectory found solace in getting back to a quasi-normal routine. Being back on campus, taking classes, participating in athletics (albeit differently from previous years), and participating in activities gave them a sense of normalcy that was comforting and, in a sense, removed them from the stress and anxiety of the outside world. Although the year was not without challenges and disappointments, it was a year where students felt safe and received the guidance and resources they needed to persevere and make the year special.

“In my estimation, last spring [2020] was a particularly challenging time as anxieties and concerns about the pandemic were at a heightened level,” said Director of Residential Life and School Counseling Justin Bendall. “When we came back in the fall for in-person learning, I feel like we had a lot of conversations, trying to allay the fears and concerns by focusing on all of the safety measures we had put into place to keep both students and faculty safe. We also knew how important it was to run activities and offer up opportunities for students to spend time together.”

“At the beginning of the year, I was having a lot more students stop by with COVID fears, but that leveled off,” said School Counselor Sarah Maley. “The students I saw I would have seen regardless of the global situation.”

But being together on campus wasn’t without challenges, and students needed to develop new skills to help them through situations they may have been able to avoid in the past.

“Cohorting was a safety measure we knew we needed, but was definitely a struggle,” said Ms. Maley. “Primary cohorts had students in the same dorm and primary classes. Under normal circumstances, students can branch out if another student is bothering them—they would visit friends in other dorms or choose different activities, but COVID protocols limited them in what they could do and with whom they could do it. They’ve had to work a lot more on developing conflict resolution skills.”

Perhaps the group that COVID impacted the most was Rectory’s ninth-grade students. Student leaders who are typically able to test their wings with special responsibilities and privileges were denied those rites of passage.

“I think it affected the ninth graders more than any other group. We had a group of proctors who didn’t have the opportunity to be proctors this year,” said Mr. Bendall. “They had to live in a dorm with other ninth graders, so they didn’t get to do the things that they were anticipating in terms of being a mentor and mediating problems and being looked up to by the younger students. Our ninth graders weren’t able to walk to the Vanilla Bean, which is something that they always looked forward to doing. It’s a short trek off campus, but it’s always been a really big deal to the graduating class. It’s more meaningful than what the actual activity is—and they weren’t able to do that. Conversely, though, looking at it from a positive perspective, they had an experience and a bond that pulled them together more than any of our other previous ninth-grade classes had.”

Cesar Rodas, chosen by his classmates to represent them at graduation, clearly agrees. “We have done a great job at accepting the new reality and putting together something that’s good,” Cesar said in his graduation speech. “This year has clearly been different, especially from a social perspective. Masks suppressing our voices, literally not figuratively, and a social distancing requirement restricted our endeavors, but we’ve persevered. I’ve really begun to appreciate the little things, like taking an hour on the pavilion to simply converse. Little interactions that we otherwise would have taken for granted are really what has made this year special.”

“I feel like this has been a year in which we’ve been proactive in regards to creating a safe environment—both physically and emotionally— through thoughtful planning,” said Mr. Bendall. “And at the same time, we’ve been responsive to situations as they arise, and we’ve kept our community safe. I think that in the most trying of times, we’ve evidenced that this is a community where we are equipped to take care of our students, even amid a global pandemic. Whether it’s simply trying to do everything that we can do to ensure that they don’t get sick, to being responsive and proactive in regards to the mental health options that we’ve provided, or creating as many opportunities to interact socially with their peers, we’ve proved this year that we can do it, and we do it quite well!”

Mr. Bendall provided areas where students could talk to each other on Tuesday nights. So even if we didn’t have classes with our friends we could still talk with them about what we’re excited about and how we’re doing in school.” -Toni E. ’22