PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019
TEENS,
continued from Page 1
S
DRIVE A LITTLE – SAVE A BUNCH!
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE • SALEM
MORE INFO AT NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM
Lights,
Comedy,
Laughs!
Saturday,
SEPT 21,
at 11:00 am
MOVIE: ANGRY
BIRDS 2 [ PG ]
Sensory
Sensitive
Show ONLY $4
Special showing for kids and adults with
Autism or other sensory sensitivities.
OPEN CAPTION SHOWING
LIVE STAND-UP COMEDY!
SATURDAY, SEPT 14
PAUL GREEN and NIGEL LARSON
7 pm & 9 pm (21 & Over)
Admission only $10.
Reserved Seating for this show.
Aladdin (PG)
Wednesday, Sept 25
6 PM, TICKETS ARE $4/EACH.
Special showing with captioning
shown on screen with the movie.
Today in History
A four-day revolt at the maximum-security Attica
Correctional Facility near Buffalo, NY, ends when
hundreds of state police offi cers storm the complex in
a hail of gunfi re. Thirty-nine people were killed in the
disastrous assault, including 29 prisoners and 10 prison
guards and employees held hostage since the outset of the
ordeal.
— September 13, 1971
Food 4 Thought
“If you are good life is good.”
— Roald Dahl, author of Charles and the Ch0colate Factory,
James and the Giant Peach. Born Sept. 13 , 1916
The Weeks Ahead
Through Sunday, September 15
Okoberfest 2019 in Mt. Angel. Featuring Alpinegarten,
Biergarten, Schnitzelgarten. Free concerts, vendors, arts and
crafts and of course, the Chicken Dance. For a full schedule
visit oktoberfest.org.
Through Sunday, September 28
Pentacle Theatre presents The Great American Trailer Park
Musical. This musical comedy contains explicit language and
adult themes. For showtimes and tickets visit pentacletheatre.
org.
Saturday, September 14
CANCELLED***Local singer Gabriel Cox will perform
at Keizer Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park.
Rescheduled for Oct. 5 at Salem Armory.
Willamette Valley Genealogical Society meets at 12 Noon at
the LDS Church, 4550 Lone Oak Rd SE, Salem. James H.
Johnson will speak about land records. Call (503) 363-0880
for more information.
Tuesday, September 17
Free admission all day at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700
State Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Keizer Fire District will present life saving awards to Dan
and Linda Garcher and Tobias, a canine, at board of directors
meeting at 7 p.m. at the Keizer Fire Hall, 661 Chemawa Rd.
N.E.
Wednesday, September 18
Repair Fair and Share from 4 - 7 p.m. at the Pringle Hall
Community Center, 606 Church Street S.E. Salem. Volunteers
join to fi x broken items, teach repair skills and more. Visit
www.co.marion.or.us/PW/ES for more details.
Thursday, September 19
The Champions for Children luncheon, a benefi t for Liberty
House, noon-1 p.m., Salem Convention Center. Contact
Adrienne Christian at 503-540-0288 or achristian@
LibertyHouseCenter.org.
Wednesday, September 25
Free community dinner, 5 p.m., St. Edward Catholic Church,
5303 River Rd. N. Facebook.com/keizer-community-dinner.
Vertigo will be at the Elsinore Theatre for $6 a person at 2
p.m. and 7 p.m.
Friday, September 26 — Saturday, October 1
Willamette University Theatre presents Men on Boats by
Jaclyn Backhaus. For more details visit willamette.edu/arts/
theatre.
Saturday, September 27
Oregon Symphony, led by conductor Carlos Kalmar, presents
Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, with pianist Garrick Ohlsson. The
evening also includes Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25. Visit
www.orsymphonysalem.org to purchase tickets and for more
details.
Tuesday, October 1
Free admission all day at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700
State Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, October 5
McNary High School’s class of 1979 will hold their 40-year
reunion at the Keizer Civic Center. For more information,
go to mcnary79.net or email the reunion committee at
mcnaryclassof79@gmail.com.
She maintained a straight-A
GPA until her junior
year. Between too many
advanced courses, softball and
volunteering, her schedule
overwhelmed her. “I just piled
everything on and then the
house of cards fell,” she said.
Students typically take
eight classes, and keeping
up with coursework can
become even more stressful
when students take a lot of
advanced placement and dual
enrollment college classes.
The problem is, it’s not just
academics. The pressure for
students to present “well-
rounded” college applications
leads to pressure to pile on
sports, volunteering and jobs
on top of school work. And
there’s often not fl exibility
from teachers or other players
in students’ lives. “They don’t
understand that you have
other things going on,” she
said.
These pressures had an
isolating effect, McMann said.
In hindsight, she wished she
had prioritized what was most
important to her and taken
more time to spend with
friends while in high school.
For McMann, the outcome
would’ve been the same—
the admissions requirements
to the school she decided fi t
her needs best, University
of Hawaii, aren’t nearly as
rigorous as she anticipated.
“I’ll be in Hawaii, living
where I want to live, it’s going
to be super nice. The nursing
school is great,” she said. But,
she added, she could’ve been
admitted with a 2.0.
She describes the stress she
went through in high school
as a “learning experience.” She
made it through all right, she
said, but she’s seen people in
her life–her own family–with
similar ambitions pushed over
the edge.
McMann’s
brother,
Ben, died by suicide at the
beginning of her senior year.
No one knows exactly what
led to Ben’s death—his parents
and his sister say he didn’t tell
anyone close to him he was
suicidal prior to acting on it—
but his family says Ben was
stressed by the new workload
of his freshman year of high
school. His death, followed by
the death of another Sprague
student a few weeks later
last September, resulted in a
reckoning at the school.
Other youth echo the
same message: kids are pushed
to their limits and expected to
constantly achieve, and then
top their achievements. But
failure happens and, when it
does, our academic system
doesn’t give students the space
to get back up and fi gure it
out.
Ben and Lauren’s parents,
Carol and Kyle McMann, said
they’ve witnessed this broader
culture of pushing kids to the
limit.
Carol sees society as
teaching kids life is an uphill
climb, when really it’s more
complicated than that.
“I think we need to teach
them that life’s a roller coaster,”
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE
THIS WEEK’S
MOVIE TIMES
Gozilla (PG-13)
Sat 2:25, Sun 2:30
Angry Brids Movie 2 (PG)
Fri 1:55, 4:40,
Sat 12:30, 4:50,
Sun 12:00, 1:55
Yesterday (PG-13)
Fri 5:50, 8:40, Sat 6:40,
Sun 3:50
Aladdin (PG)
Fri 1:20, 3:45, 6:15,
Sat 11:40, 2:05, 4:30
Sun 12:30, 3:00, 5:35
Rocketman (R)
Fri 2:20, Sat 3:50, Sun 7:15
John Wick: Chapter 3 (R)
Fri 8:05, Sat 6:10, Sun 6:05, 8:05
Secret Life of Pets 2 (PG)
Fri 4:00
Sat 11:55
Sun 12:50
Men in Black: Intn’l (PG-13)
Fri 6:40, Sat 1:40, 8:35, Sun 5:00
FOR ALL SHOWTIMES GO TO
NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM
Maze by Jonathan Graf of Keizer
EXISTENTIAL
STRESS
Emily Bogan, an incoming
junior at McNary High
School, plans on going back to
school shopping. On her list: a
bulletproof backpack.
She reads the headlines
about school shootings, and
they scare her. And there’s an
added element of fear, she
said, because McNary is under
construction this year, and
many classrooms have been
moved to temporary portables
on the campus.
“It’s just stressful to go to
school, because … we’ll be out
in portables and most of the
time they don’t lock portables,”
she said. “You just open the
door and you’re in class,
which could be catastrophic if
something happened.”
In addition to the mass
shootings that make national
headlines, she referenced a few
weeks of unusually violent
headlines coming out of Salem.
It makes her wonder: “What is
this world coming to?”
Young people are growing
up in an unstable political
moment. Mass shootings
dominate the news cycle, rates
of hate crimes are increasing,
climate change experts have
a 10-year countdown on the
Earth’s habitable lifespan.
Clinicians say kids are
paying attention. And it’s
impacting their mental health.
School-based mental health
professionals have noticed
this shift. Students used to
come in with more individual
problems, but now raise
questions like, “What are the
adults doing with my world?”
in response to violence and
political turmoil.
The impact can be even
greater on students of color,
particularly Latino students.
The El Paso shooting, which
killed 22 people in a Walmart
in early August, has been
called a hate crime based on
racist statements made by
looking
back in
the KT
5 YEARS AGO
Gate between MHS
and Sandy is closed
The Kitchen (R)
Fri 8:55, Sat 9:10, Sun 8:30
maze
Carol said. “You’re going to
have your ups, you’re going to
have your downs. And that’s
life. That’s okay.”
She added: “You can plan
things, but that’s not how life
goes.”
Academics are framed
as
ascendant—students
are expected to improve
performance throughout an
academic career, volunteer,
show they are “well-rounded”
individuals, so they can
continue the ascent into a
prestigious school and then,
from there, onto a high-fl ying
career. The picture painted
for kids depicts a continuous
march upward, paved with
their blood, sweat and tears.
But that’s not healthy or
sustainable, especially when
paired with stressors that are
even further outside of kids’
control.
A new, simple approach is
being utilized to cut down on
incidents with McNary High
School students causing issues
on Sandy Drive. In response to
complaints, city staff put up a
gate that can be closed.
10 YEARS AGO
Police going to the dogs
Keizer’s newest police dog
has been on the street since
May. Now, the department is
looking to add a third.
15 YEARS AGO
KFD sends team to
Florida to help
with recovery
Surviving a Mental Health Crisis
As more young people struggle with mental health,
it becomes even more crucial for bystanders to
understand how to support them.
Listen non-judgmentally
Acknowledge that what the person
is feeling is real, and be
empathetic and accepting
Ask about
even though
suicidal thoughts
you may not
If you think there is a chance to
agree.
intervene, ask the person directly
if they are thinking of killing themselves.
If they say “no,” ask again. Someone
might be able to shrug off the
fi rst inquiry, it’s harder the
Ask about plans
second time.
If they say, “yes,” ask if they
have decided how, when and if
they’ve gotten the things they need to
pull it off. The more answers they have,
the closer they are to an attempt.
Encourage
Do not leave them alone if you
professional,
believe self-harm or harm
self-help
to others is imminent.
Help them explore
Call 9-1-1 if it’s too
activities that might bolster
big to handle.
their mental health, from therapy
to hotlines to regular exercise. The most
important protective factor for a youth
against a mental health crisis is feeling close
to at least one adult. The number for the
National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.
Investigate
mental health fi rst aid
Mental Health First Aid is a free,
eight-hour crash course in what to do
when someone you know, love, or barely
know, is experiencing a mental health crisis.
A full list of upcoming free classes in the area
can be found at www.mentalhealthfi rstaid.org.
the shooter prior to the mass
killing.
Juanita Aniceto is a peer
support specialist at Salem
Drop, a community center
designed as a place for young
people to connect with each
other and with adults trained
to help them work through
their problems.
“I don’t think I have had
kids that haven’t struggled with
some kind of mental health
history,” she said.
But Aniceto said in addition
to the national headlines that
seem indiscriminate in their
targets, there’s an added layer
for students from immigrant
families. She said there’s several
young adults who come to
the Salem Drop who are
concerned about their legal
status or the legal status of their
families. One of these students
was separated from their family,
she said, adding another layer
of stress to adolescence.
Kids are not as insulated
from the world as the adults
might think they are. And even
when the adults try to shield
kids from the world, social
media keeps them immersed
in the bad news.
SOCI Aside AL from
MEDIA a vehicle for bad
news, social media also can have
an isolating effect on youth.
Mikki Krause, a 2018
Sprague grad, has seen her
friends get stressed out while
scrolling through Instagram.
The constant barrage of
images send a clear message:
so many people are thinner,
more fashionably dressed, more
popular. And the negative
messages aren’t just subliminal;
outright
cyberbullying
is
common as well.
“A lot of people are mean
behind the screen,” Krause said.
The
problem
Krause
describes is one that’s echoed
among parents and clinicians.
At the Salem Health-sponsored
listening sessions held at all
Salem-Keizer high schools
during the last school year - a
response to the Sprague suicide
cluster – social media came up
at every session. Parents and
school staff frequently voiced
their fears about the impact it’s
having on youth.
“It was consistent across all
the listening sessions, to the
point where we had to say at
the beginning of the last few
listening sessions, we know
social media is something that
Five members of the Keizer
Fire District’s Community
Emergency Response Team
headed to Florida this week to
help the victims of Hurricane
Frances.
20 YEARS AGO
City executives
retreat – on their
own time
Government people are always
getting beat up over expensive
retreats. But the people in
Keizer’s city government
burned up their own vacation
time and used the vacation
home of a staff member for a
recent city staff retreat.
concerns you, so we’re going
to talk about it briefl y and then
move on,” said Leilani Slama,
vice president of community
engagement for Salem Health.
But dealing with social
media’s impact on kids is more
complicated than taking away
their phones, experts say.
Nick Allen is a mental
health clinician and researcher.
He also directs University of
Oregon’s Center for Digital
Mental Health, which seeks to
utilize technological solutions
to addressing mental health.
The
vilifi cation
of
“screentime” is not productive,
he said. It stems from the
generation gap between adults
raised before the days of social
media and the kids born into it.
Allen said social media
and screentime should be
approached like driving. We
“understand there are both
opportunities
and
risks”
to driving, he said, but we
teach kids how to utilize the
opportunity and mitigate
the risk with education and
adult support. Technology and
social media shouldn’t be any
different, he said.
He also added scapegoating
social media as the sole
problem in kids’ lives doesn’t
deal with the root issue. Kids
who struggle with feelings of
isolation and inadequacy fi nd
themselves struggling as much
in real life as online. If the IRL
need isn’t addressed, the online
need won’t go away, either, he
said.
Despite adult concerns,
kids fi nd many benefi ts to
being online. Marginalized
kids especially—Allen cites the
example of LGBTQ+ youth—
“can go online and fi nd a
community of people who can
understand you,” he said.
Experts like Allen and the
kids themselves see a missed
opportunity in conversations
about social media and mental
health. Krause, who struggled
with anxiety and depression
herself, found positive spaces to
talk about mental health online,
but adults don’t often see the
opportunity to build upon
those spaces.
“Social media—if we use
it properly—can open up a
conversation about it,” she said.
“But we’re not there yet.”
Come back next week to learn
how Salem-Keizer Public Schools
is beginning to address youth
mental health concerns.
sudoku
Enter digits
from 1-9 into
the blank
spaces. Every
row must
contain one
of each digit.
So must every
column, as
must every
3x3 square.