Fifty-One-Fifties
K. Blackstock
In the past year, Las Lomas has had the highest case of fifty-one-fifties in the school district. “A 51/50 is an involuntary hospitalization of a person because they have expressed that they’ve either wanted to harm themselves or they are a danger to others,” said Adriana Martinez, the Acalanes School district’s social worker.
“Usually it gets initiated by whoever is talking to the student, so If a student is expressing some kind of self-harm or that they’re a danger to others, that person would notify an administrator and then that administrator might contact one of our support counselors,” said Martinez. “They’ll connect the student with a mental health specialist, assuming that the child is not in immediate crisis in that moment. They talk to them and kind of asses the situation at that point is when they may need to contact law enforcement because technically school staff are not the ones that take the child to the hospital, it has to be initiated by law enforcement. And then they do they’re own assessment, so there’s layers, and then they determine if that kid need to go to the hospital. When students come back there’s a supportive way of coming back so that there’s things in place to help that student reintegrate back into school.”
The Wellness Center at Las Lomas is officially opened on November 1, and it’s working hours are from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM.
“The district believed that in our community we needed something for the children as far as to help them reconnect, reintegrate back into class and to be able to have the coping mechanisms and skills to deal with depression or other issues that happen in the world, to be able to deal with them and juggle that and also deal with their academics,” said Stanton, Wellness Center Specialist, when asked what was the importance of having a wellness center.
“I think that all children need support everywhere you go.”
“We have many services, whether they’re having struggles with their gender, struggles with drug addiction, whatever the child actually needs, they can seek help for it,” said Ms. Stanton. “Whether it’s depression, whether they don’t know how to integrate with new kids because they just moved here, we’re here to help them.”
The fact that our school has the highest amount of 51/50 cases impacts the Wellness Centers mission. “It impacts it greatly that there’s going to be constant training for all staff members. We’re always going to be on top of it, that we know what’s happening and that we are there to help the children out,” said Stanton. “They can’t take everything on themselves. No problem is too awful or bad, we’re here for them, to help them out. We have an open door policy so please come and visit the Wellness Center.”
