{"id":100303,"date":"2018-04-19T17:09:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T23:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/animas-high-students-aim-to-end-teen-isolation\/"},"modified":"2018-04-19T17:09:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T23:09:35","slug":"animas-high-students-aim-to-end-teen-isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/animas-high-students-aim-to-end-teen-isolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Animas High students aim to end teen isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Animas
Animas High School students are working with fellow students from Durango High School, Ignacio and Bayfield to organize a youth spotlight event on Saturday. Students visited La Plata County Humane Society before the event so attendees will be able to meet pets available for adoption.<\/span>Courtesy of Shane Nelson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bullying and feelings of isolation can follow teenagers home from school through social media and students across La Plata County want that to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome kids experience (post-traumatic stress disorder) from school because they don\u2019t get what\u2019s called mental rest. \u2026 They are in a constant state of experiencing trauma,\u201d said Rosie Gurnee, a freshman at Animas High School.<\/p>\n

Animas High School<\/a> students are working with their peers from Durango High School, Ignacio and Bayfield to organize The Voice of a Generation: Youth Resource Spotlight Event to help teenagers meet others with similar interests, join new clubs and break away from feelings of isolation.<\/p>\n

The teens were inspired to hold the event because they felt left out of the conversation about how the community should address teen suicide and depression. La Plata County has one of the highest rates of teen suicides in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all felt that the teen voice wasn\u2019t heard. \u2026 We have solutions to this,\u201d Animas High School sophomore Kealey Meyer said.<\/p>\n

The event will feature skateboarding, slacklining, live art, spoken-word performances, games and live music, among other activities. Teens can also meet pets available for adoption and learn about mental health resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want to focus on things that people can connect to,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n

The students want to ensure that those who feel isolated have peers to talk with not just adults because the social trials of school have changed radically with technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be that group that understands what they are going though,\u201d Animas High School sophomore Ori Rehman said.<\/p>\n

When youth feel valued in their community, suicide rates, depression and self-harm among teens drop, said humanities teacher Shane Nelson, who helped organize the project. San Juan Basin Public Health and La Plata Youth Services are sponsoring the event, which will be held in coordination with the city\u2019s celebration of north Main Avenue.<\/p>\n

Students or organizations who would like to participate can reach the students at youthvoicespotlight@gmail.com<\/a>. Students interested in performing can also participate in an open mic portion of the event.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

The Voice of a Generation: Youth Resource Spotlight Event will be held between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds parking lot. It will held in conjunction with the city\u2019s celebration of north Main Avenue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

future live music, poetry and games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1644,568,832,955],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animas-high-school","tag-events","tag-mental-illness","tag-suicide"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100303"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}