DIXON, CA (MPG) - A floppy purple octopus has the attention of 30 eager kindergartners at Gretchen Higgins Elementary School in Dixon.

“What is different about this Octopus?” Lizeth Martinez, a Mental Health Clinician asks and instantly a couple hands shoot up. Other students may be still staring at the Octopus trying to figure it out, but the little girl shouts the answer.

“It only has six legs!” Other students agree after learning that an Octopus should have eight tentacles; six legs and two arms. They are wrapping up their discussion about accepting others that are different. This touch of understanding helps them be kind to those with disabilities or special needs: to accept diversity.

When it was time to say goodbye to the Octopus, Martinez allowed the students to hug the soft creature or simply just wave to it.

“This is how we say goodbye and show love,” she tells them. These simple 20-minute lessons occur weekly as part of Dixon Unified School District’s effort to teach children social and emotional intelligence or SEL, a program started about four years ago. This is something now recognized as important as academics and a skill that can be taught academically.

Teaching Emotions

Today’s students are learning self-awareness, resilience, and mental strength. Some of the topics are benefits of gratitude; foundations of a relationship; embracing change; dealing with doubt and fear; healthy and unhealthy disagreements, asking for help, social awareness; decision making; prioritizing; peer pressure; bullying; problem solving techniques; and, setting goals.

While not all schools or grades get these lessons right now, eventually all grade levels will have them.

Behavior Expectations

“We’re trying to be proactive,” said Adriane Laughter, Coordinator of Pupil Services, about the effort where teachers and staff built teams and created behavior expectations. These are posted around the schools telling students what behavior should happen on a playground or in a cafeteria, for example. Students were rewarded for their positive behavior. “It was an effort away from being punitive,” she explained.

But when the pandemic sent students home, positive social skills normally learned in classrooms and on campus were challenged.

“School has been a safe place for many years. They could get their meals, they could come to a place where they were not berated, and where they felt supported,” she said. “When the pandemic hit and schools closed, we took away their safe place.” Especially this year, the district wanted to target children who are struggling maybe because of a divorce, or they developed anxiety.

Wellness Centers

To address those struggles and stresses of students, and with the help of a $500,000 grant to Solano County in 2018, the district created “Wellness Centers” on campus. These rooms are designated for quiet time with maybe music or simple, relaxing chairs so a student has a place to decompress.

If a student just needs a “reset,” Laughter explained, there are activities that promote relaxation such as listening to soothing music, books to read on meditation or Yoga, or designs they can color. There is supposed to be an adult they can talk to if they are in a crisis.

Laughter reports that many students are coming back to school with some form of “trauma.”

Bullying

If a student reports to a teacher “this kid is hurting me,” they instantly talk to the students, she said, adding that a lot of students will not say anything during the day but will wait to get home and tell their mom or dad at night.

“We do our best to address the situation. If a bully doesn’t respond appropriately, then there is a health team"'a Level 1 and a Level 2 that identifies kids who need “support.” The student has to check in and check out daily with a trusted adult on campus with a goal of setting that student up for success,” Laughter explained. They also work with students who witnessed bullying and teach about being an “Upstander” instead of a “Bystander.”

They try to teach students who have bullied others about being less reactive and more proactive and offer smaller group lessons, bringing them together for six- to ten-week sessions with mental health clinicians, behaviorists, and school psychologists that comprise the mental health team. Although she reports the district is understaffed right now and is looking to hire three additional mental health clinicians. They also need more volunteers.

“The children are more empathetic to people with autism, special needs, people with cerebral palsy or physical disabilities,” Laughter said. “We do such a great job. We’re doing a lot of good.”