Two students were stretched out on cots in her office, felled by a bug that gave them scratchy throats and runny noses. Another child came in to use his inhaler. A few miles away, at the Old Hammondtown School in Mattapoisett, colds and viruses were keeping school nurse Mary Demers going non-stop. She, like Mrs. Westgate, said while much of their day is spent caring for the immediate health concerns of the children in their care, many more duties have been added over the course of the years. What we see aren't the cuts and bruises of the elementary years, but the psychological cuts and bruises.
Children are under a great deal of stress.
There are family and academic issues and the pressure to become involved with alcohol and drugs. They also face issues of sexuality and sexual orientation, eating disorders and teen pregnancy as well as the devastating impact of violence at home and in their communities. Their classmates are being killed, and this was unheard of 20 years ago. Ms. Piessens helped establish the UMass-Simmons School Health Institute, which is partially funded by money from the Tobacco Control Programs and administered by the state's Department of Public Health's school health unit. The collaborative effort between the University of Massachusetts and Simmons College focuses on improving the capability of health personnel to deliver comprehensive health care and human services to children and adolescents in educational settings and to assure that children in the state will be more resilient, healthy and ready to learn.