HAWLEY, Pa. — A day at school can take a mental toll on students.
"Being in high school, it's a lot of stress for kids nowadays. Not only do you have tests and quizzes, but you have social media, you have home life," said Nevaeh Buddenhagen, a senior at Wallenpaupack Area High School.
The high school near Hawley has a leadership and diversity committee. Students started researching how stress impacts their classmates.
"Especially for high school students, there's a lot of absentees, and that is partly to do with students feeling overwhelmed with the thought of coming to school," said junior Leila Katz.
Students say their classmates would find other ways to cope, like wandering the halls or hanging out in the bathroom to blow off steam, and they knew there had to be a better option.
Inspiration wasn't too far away. The Wallenpaupack Area Middle School has its own "calm room," sparking the idea to apply for a grant to create another at the high school.
"When somebody's emotions are out of regulation, we need to bring them back in and be able to calm them, bring them back to center. And one of the ways we do that is paying attention to the five senses," said Cara Dougherty, a Wallenpaupack Area school counselor.
The calm room at the middle school has soft lights, comfortable seating, and soothing sights, including a fish tank.
Wallenpaupack Area High School was one of 26 schools across the nation and two in Pennsylvania to be selected for a calm room grant through the nonprofit Cook Center for Human Connection.
"They talked about how the children were on board, and they were the ones asking for it. So any time you can get students involved and student voices into a project, that's going to make it really successful," said Anne Brown, president and CEO of the Cook Center for Human Connection.
"I was like, 'No way! We got the grant!' And it was really exciting for us because it's the next step in our process," said sophomore Gio Patire.
Before students can access the calm room, they need to check in with a school counselor.
"We do have a teacher assistant who is in the room who makes sure the students are focused and are doing what they need to do in this space. Students spend five to ten minutes in this space in there taking a break, taking a breather, and then they return to class," Dougherty explained.
The Wallenpaupack Area School District hopes to have the calm room at the high school ready by the end of the school year.