Keeping our Kids Healthy & Safe
(Spanish) McMinnville School District hosted a Wellness Summit for district families on March 5, 2025. The resources below were collected in response to a ThoughtExchange that asked families what issues they were interested in hearing about at the summit. In addition to the topic specific resources below, here is a list of local resources that can help with a wide range of health and wellness issues.
Panelists/organizations at the summit included:
- Leo Ceja, MSD Mental Health Specialist / Counselor
- Kourtney Ferrua, D.Ed., MSD
- Melissa Hendricks, Oregon Family Support Network
- Jason Henness, Moderator, HHS Behavioral Health
- Camille La Rocca-Carrillo, Fostering Hope Initiative/Catholic Community Services
- Meredith Maxfield, Raising Resilience Committee/Resilient Mac
- Bill Michelsen, Yamhill County Public Health
- Bella Norman, YCAP Youth Services
- Zoe Pearson, Yamhill Family and Youth
- Anthony Preston, School Resource Officer
- Jordan Robinson, Lutheran Community Services
- Julie Siepmann, Juliette’s House
- Jacqui Terrill Cooke, FNP-C, CNM, Sunrise Family Clinic & McMinnville SBHC
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Healthy Kids in the Technology Age
The mass migration of childhood into the virtual world has disrupted social and neurological development. This disruption includes social anxiety, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation and addiction. Alarmed by the rates of anxiety and depression in adolescents, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. The book explores these growing phenomena and offers ideas to change course.
More resources:
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Raising Resilience
Raising Resilience is a local response to the ideas raised in the book, The Anxious Generation. The goal of the Raising Resilience project is to facilitate community conversations and actions to raise healthy kids in the technology age. Linfield professor Dr. Jennifer Linder presents an overview of the trends and wisdom from research on technology and its influence on kids.
More resources:
- Local Raising Resilience project
- Raising Resilience resources
- Take Action! (toolkit to come)
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Superintendent Brockett and the Impact of Social Media on Teens
MSD Superintendent Dr. Brockett joined SmartSocial for a live podcast in March to help families understand the impact of social media on teens. The event covered how to better understand the emotional and behavioral impact of social media, recognize harmful patterns, and get practical steps and dialogue starters to help your child use social media safely and responsibly.
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Anxiety
More resources:
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Mental Health
More resources:
- Descriptions, tips, skill-building
- Guidance and Help
- The Thriving Kids Projects
- Childhood and Mental Health
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Bullying
More resources:
- StopBullying site includes information and resources on bullying, cyberbullying, prevention, resources and how to get help.
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Online Safety
Sponsored by the McMinnville Soroptimists, Dr. Susan Inman shares information on keeping students safe from exploitation on the internet.
More resources:
Knowledge is Power toolkit
Blue Campaign for awareness
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Sextortion
Sextortion is when children and teens are threatened and coerced into sending explicit images online. Boys are most often targeted.
More resources:
- FBI Sextortion site with tips on how to get help, what teens and caregivers need to know and more.
- Protecting Kids Online information on how to talk to your kids about being online, and how to help them make good decisions and stay safe.
- SafetyNet Training @ Juliette’s House
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Protecting from Pornography
Pornography is now incredibly accessible. It’s not so much a question of if your child will see it, as when they will.
More resources:
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Q&As from the Summit
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School Safety
What school safety practices the district follows during an emergency.
More resources:
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Vaping
More resources:
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Fake Pills
More Resources: