Faculty Profile
‘ We’re All Willing to Give Each Other More Grace’ At the end of last summer, everyone – students, parents, teachers, and administrators alike – had a lot on their minds. Protests over racial injustice continued to smolder. A presidential election that had become especially divisive was on the horizon. And the surrealness of the COVID-19 pandemic compounded all of it. Anticipating widespread emotional fragility as students and teachers returned to school, Marc Scott, Director of Equity and Community at The Tatnall School and a history instructor in the Upper School, and Rebecca Whitesell, MA, NCC, LPC, a newly-hired counselor at Tatnall, contacted the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They were looking for guidance in developing resources to enable the Tatnall community to engage in open, honest, and productive conversations about mental health. “We felt like we had to talk about it more, but we knew we would need additional resources to better address mental health concerns,” Scott says. “We also didn’t want to wait for things to happen and react to them. We wanted to be as proactive as we could,” Whitesell adds. Their initiatives took a variety of forms. The faculty dress code was relaxed. Additional mental health providers were invited to Tatnall to talk about the importance of self-care. Whitesell and Scott also regularly checked in with students and teachers through email surveys. “We tried to use that data to inform big-picture ideas about how to reduce stress overall,” Scott says. “For the most part, we acted as mediators.” Every student survey included the question “Do you need to speak with a school counselor?” Whitesell says “multiple students” who had never experienced anxiety or depression before contacted her, believing they were experiencing symptoms of one of the conditions or both of them.
We tried to use that data to inform big-picture ideas about how to reduce stress overall. For the most part, we acted as mediators. — Marc Scott Director of Equity and Community
potentially hostile event, like the presidential election or the announcement of a verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial. In those instances, Whitesell and Scott brought everyone together to offer reassurance that no one was alone in what they were feeling. But also to remind them to be respectful of those who felt differently. They organized two gatherings after the capitol insurrection in January. And following the Chauvin verdict in April, they hosted a special breakout group on Zoom. “Because it was a smaller session, more people were willing to let their guard down and be vulnerable,” Whitesell says. As the school year ended, Scott says he sensed fatigue, but also optimism among the students. He also picked up on a deeper empathy than he’d previously experienced at the school.
She encouraged others who came to her feeling overwhelmed to talk with their teachers.
“I think the best way to summarize it is, we’re all willing to give each other more grace,” he says. “This year, people have been more willing to say, ‘I’m not OK.’ And it’s made us more mindful of each other. The worry now is that when the pandemic ends, life will return to the way it was, with people acting like everything’s fine.”
If they felt enough people were struggling, they’d talk with administrators about scheduling a virtual day. Often, concern peaked in anticipation of a
For those reasons, Whitesell and Scott say plans are already underway to renew the focus on mental health during the coming school year.
“What we wanted to help our students do is develop an awareness of what they might be feeling and put a name to it,” Whitesell says.
SUMMER 2021 :: TATNALL.ORG ::
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