PORTSMOUTH — While the COVID-19 pandemic may have delayed some of their plans in recent months, members of Every Student Initiative (ESI) at Portsmouth High School are as determined as ever to continue advocating for more mental health resources for their peers.

“In the summertime we still had meetings, but they were through Zoom,” said PHS senior Hailey Pratt, ESI’s new youth president. “Each grade had monthly meetings. It was still a nice way to get connected, but the lack of not being with everyone in person — it was a lot different. Now we’re able to have meetings in person here in the office. It’s been a lot easier to get our work done and make plans for the future.”

Hailey was referring to ESI’s own digs at 1016 East Main Road, which was necessitated by the explosion in membership, which now sits at 101 students who either attend PHS or live in town. Located within the “Old Almy Village” plaza also shared by Fieldstones, Milk & Honey, and several other businesses, ESI’s handsome office is around the back and up a flight of stairs. It features a conference room, a game room complete with PlayStation and other equipment, and a separate room for individual meetings. 

Taking up almost an entire wall is a gigantic framed photograph that features a young Nathan Bruno, jumping off a big ship on Martha’s Vineyard along with a bunch of other kids. It serves as a reminder of ESI’s mission. 

Nathan, a PHS student, was 15 when he died by suicide on Feb. 7, 2018. Three of his friends formed ESI in his memory, and the nonprofit Be Great for Nate was later established as an umbrella organization over ESI and other programs.

“Nathan used to go to Martha’s Vineyard for a couple weeks every summer with his dad (Rick Bruno),” said Steven Peterson, executive director of Be Great for Nate. “He’d go on this Black Dog tall ship, which was a weeklong camp for kids. They’d sail around the island and learn about marine biology and the ocean and the environment, and how to sail a boat.”

After Nathan’s death, Mr. Bruno struggled with whether he’d return to the island, something he’d done for 10 years, Mr. Peterson said. He decided to make the trip, and bring some of Nathan’s friends along. They were in the Black Dog store when one of the teens spotted a familiar face in a big photograph on the wall: “Mr. Bruno — that’s Nathan, isn’t it?”

Mr. Bruno contacted the photographer, who gladly supplied him with several images that were made into prints for the office, Mr. Peterson said.

Pandemic takes toll

Now, under Nathan’s watchful eye, ESI plans to ramp things up. However, it hasn’t been easy during a pandemic that’s kept many teens away from each other, said Hailey. 

“For myself it was definitely hard. It was taking away everything you were used to: seeing your friends, going out in public, going to do things,” she said, noting that being socially distant can take an emotional toll on one’s mental health. “For a lot of teens, it’s very difficult to stay in one place.”

Haley, who was still a few days away from physically going back to school when this interview was conducted, said she couldn’t wait to get back into a classroom.

“Before, you were dreading going to school because you didn’t want to go to school,” she said. “But now it’s excitement. I want to see my friends, I want to have that normal routine that was just taken away from me. Being on a Zoom call? I don’t like it; I’m just miserable because I’m staring at a screen for an 83-minute class for five hours a day. It’s just not fun.”

The isolation that teens have been experiencing since March came with a heavy cost, said Mr. Peterson.

“It’s not easy for a teen to be told, ‘OK, this room is where you’re going to do your homework, your schoolwork, play your video games, go to sleep, eat,’” he said, noting that some students’ grades fell after the district switched to remote learning in March. “Going to school is that escape, that ability to actually sit down and focus on the work I need to do in this setting. But when you’re at home, you’re not supposed to be doing these things; that confused a lot of kids.”

The pandemic has only exacerbated feelings of anxiety and depression in many people, he said.

“You look at when the pandemic hit us, right at the beginning of spring,” he said. “There’s a big problem with that because we have seasonal depression — those winter months when it’s dark and cold and you’re stuck inside. This pandemic extended that seasonal depression and turned a lot of that into actual clinical depression for a lot of kids and adults. There’s no escape from that anxiety; the place where you’re doing your test is now your bedroom. There was really no good place to turn for coping skills; they couldn’t do those things that they normally would.”

Mr. Peterson, a board member of the local prevention coalition which has a strong partnership with Be Great for Nate, said he believes substance use among teens has skyrocketed. “Now, that’s where they’re turning, instead of positive coping skills.”

ESI’s mission

ESI’s mission is to create a “culture of connection” to make those coping skills readily available. “The No. 1 protective factor is connection — connection to self, school, your peers, your community, your parents. We just want to create that connection for kids in a healthy and safe way,” said Mr. Peterson.

Hailey outlined some of the programs in which the group is involved to help forge those connections. One is a suicide prevention training program that ESI created itself. 

“Every member who goes through ESI gets trained in suicide prevention training. We started realizing that we wanted other people to get the training besides us. We decided that in the spring of 2021 we would offer it to the community,” said Hailey, adding she was in the dark about spotting the warning signs before becaming a member. “But I learned so much that I’m able to help people in the community figure out the signs, the risk factors, the red flags and even how to give a call if somebody’s in danger of suicide.”

Mr. Peterson, a licensed clinical social worker, put the program together after running it by some of the original ESI members who graduated from PHS earlier this year. The training session takes about 90 minutes, and those who went through the program are now training others in suicide prevention.

“It takes about 20 hours of training to become a certified trainer,” Mr. Peterson said. “We already have an agreement with St. Barnabas (Church) to give it to all their CCD kids, grades 6, 7, and 8. We’re hoping to expand that out to the community — to adults, too.”

Middle school, too

ESI also is extending its reach to younger students at Portsmouth Middle School.

“People assume there are just the signs in teenagers, but they’re showing signs in middle school that suicide is an issue,” said Hailey, adding those students will benefit by being more connected to PHS, where most of them will eventually end up.

Due to the pandemic, Mr. Peterson said the middle school program won’t launch until next month or December, and the younger students will probably meet every three months as opposed to monthly like PHS members. “We wanted to do it at the beginning of the year, but COVID has complicated everything. Our goal is to add about 50 kids in grades 6 through 8. They’ll gain some skills in terms of emotional intelligence,” he said.

Be Great for Nate and ESI want to teach positive coping skills “out of the womb” in order to decrease suicide rates, Mr. Peterson said. “The second-biggest population of suicide in American is teenage boys. The top suicide rate is middle-aged men, 45 to 55. That’s because when those men were teenagers, they didn’t have those positive coping skills and they went on their whole life and struggled with those things,” he said.

Game night

Another program the group hopes to start up soon is Saturday game night at the ESI office, an idea of Hailey’s to give kids a fun and safe way to connect while avoiding bad choices. The program is ideal for teens who either aren’t invited to parties, have a hard time declining an invitation to one, or find it difficult to say no to drugs or alcohol that are available at such gatherings, she said.

“Saturday night game night opens up the office for a place where teens that feel the same way can go. There are teens who don’t necessarily want to go to parties and they don’t want to have to deal with the pressure of saying no and being judged for it,” she said.

There will be video games and board games, along with pizza, snacks and soft drinks. “We’ll also have the game of the week, like ESI-created Family Feud. You can sign up your team and win gift cards,” said Mr. Peterson, noting the target audience is grades 6 to 10. “Before you build these bad expectations, let’s have our junior and senior ESI members show you can make a better choice.” 

The ESI office provides an ideal space for kids to “drop in and just hang out if they want,” but he hopes the program will also encourage teens and families to host their own game nights at home.

Also on tap

ESI and Be Great for Nate are getting involved in the community in other ways, too. Mr. Peterson said 500 “Team Carrigan/Be Great for Nate” bracelets will be distributed soon in support of Carrigan Nelson, a 19-year-old Portsmouth woman who has been battling cancer for several years. Ms. Nelson recently underwent an above-the-knee amputation in hopes of stopping the cancer’s spread.

“She reached out to (original ESI member) Owen Ross, and said every time she does chemo she looks down at her ‘Be Great for Nate’ bracelet. She really is the epitome of being great for Nate, and we want to honor that,” said Mr. Peterson.

Next month ESI will also be starting a monthly video series through YouTube called “Chat with Jack,” hosted by freshman ESI member Jack Voute. 

“He’s going to start interviewing people in the community — what are they doing to create connections, what are their struggles? It will be posted once a month,” said Mr. Peterson. The November show, he add, will feature an apple pie-making contest “between three teenage boys who have never cooked in their lives.”

ESI members will also be putting on costumes for a “Halloween House” using pop-up tents at Schultzy’s Snack Shack in Island Park on Oct. 30, he said.

For more information about Be Great for Nate and its related programs, visit BG4N.org.

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