Students at the New Mexico Academy for the Media Arts are making a documentary of lawmakers in their efforts to pass a bill to create a mental wellness room in schools across the state, also detailing why students need the resource.
“As someone who struggles with anxiety, I think it would be very helpful to just go and reset because classes can be loud,” Dara Vilay, a seventh-grader involved in making the documentary, told KRQE.
Vilay and senior Colbie Boyd interviewed teens at Taos High School, Alamogordo High School and fellow classmates to get their opinions, according to KRQE. The interviewees pointed to school violence and dealing with COVID-19 as factors that cause stress. The documentary suggests mental wellness rooms designed by students would be a valuable place to relieve some of that anxiety.
Boyd told KRQE a mental wellness room would benefit all students. “My sister is just starting high school so knowing that she could have something like this throughout her high school life, and I’ve met a lot of the kids here and I know how beneficial it would be for a lot of the kids here,” Boyd said.
Sponsored by Pamelya Herndon (D-Albuquerque), House Bill 112 would create a six-year pilot program for elementary, middle and high schools “to implement wellness rooms to support the emotional, mental and behavioral health of students.”
The bill would appropriate $5 million through the Public Education Department. Funds would be distributed to a maximum of 40 public schools.
Herndon applauds the students for creating the documentary. “I am so happy to know that, that will be student-led,” she said.