Student gets an ‘A plus’

McKeesport district endorses student solution center

The McKeesport Area School District gets an A for recognizing a good idea when one is presented. And the student who came up with the idea gets an A-plus.

The district agreed to allocate $4,000 for a “student solution center” that would create a special space in the high school where students can interact with their peers when stress is getting to them.

The idea came from senior Alex Dalton who met another student from another school district at a civic club meeting and the other student told him about a “speak to me room” at his high school. One thing led to another and, in January, Alex and about 20 like-minded students were at a McKeesport school board meeting where they found school directors who proved amenable to the idea of students helping students.

The concept of the student solution center is to create a safe space where kids can escape their stress and give to voice to it in art or music, thought and meditation, or in conversation with specially-trained student-peers. The center will be set up in a room equipped with “stuff” like art supplies, musical instruments, a white noise machine. It will be located near the high school’s guidance office. Peer-students who want to be engaged with the project will undergo a sixhour training session.

The room won’t be a hide-away for a student hoping to skip a lecture or a test. Anyone who wants to use the center will be required to go to the guidance counselor’s office for approval.

The student solution center should not and will not replace high school guidance services. Adult professionals are needed for a teen in crisis. But sometimes the opportunity for a kid to talk to another kid is just what the doctor — or the guidance counselor — ordered.

McKeesport has its share of troubles, from drug addiction and gun violence to unemployment and underemployment. Every student in every one of the district’s school buildings is impacted, directly or indirectly. This is a way (and a low-cost one, at that) to build a sense of community within a student body that faces many challenges.