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Ingleside ISD students create mental health awareness club

Two Ingleside High School students are making sure their peers feel safe when it comes to talking about their mental health.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The hallways of high school can be a scary place, but one room at Ingleside High School takes those fears away.

“It’s a room that’s providing opportunity for us to grow and expand our club and really shed a light and let the community know what’s going on in our educational society,” said Junior Mia Reed.

Junior Mia Reed and Senior Thomas Hernandez found a way to keep mental health at the forefront by creating a club where students can share and offer support to one another. The club is called mustang mindset.

“It’s a mental health awareness club that is spreading positivity throughout the school creating a safe space for these kids to really express themselves in ways that maybe they’re too afraid to talk to teachers about,” said Reed.

School counselor Trisha Frost says an environment where students can share with one another is extremely important.

“When they can get together and talk and realize oh it’s not just me there’s other people that feel the same way I do it really does help them and validate them and help them push through some obstacles,” said Frost.

Frost says Coastal Bend students have been impacted by a lot the past few years which makes this club even more important.

“Our kids were affected by Hurricane Harvey, they were affected by the freeze, they were affected by the pandemic if you talk to any of these kids, they just feel like it’s just life,” said Frost. “But those are huge events that impact the mental health, so it helps they have this way to talk through it.”

Both Mia and Thomas are happy they can provide a safe space where students can hang up the phone, hang out, and support one another.

“I really do wish it was available when I was in high school as a freshman or something,” said Thomas Hernandez. “The activities we do are pretty fun, and I think having that freshman year would’ve been fun.”

RELATED: How are you feeling? May is Mental Health Awareness Month

“I want to try and do everything I can do to really spread awareness and make this place mustang mindset here at school a place they can be themselves,” said Reed.

The club started with just three students and quickly grew to 40.

When it comes to mental health resources at the school, counselors are always available for students, and they also have resources for parents

"That's what we've shared with these students. Whenever there's more of a need the counselors can work with parents to provide support with outside agencies, we partner with a lot of outside agencies like coastal plains,” said Frost.

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