DHS is developing a Wellness Center on campus, and when the center opens next school year, Elephant in the Room will make this space feel more student-owned. While teachers and counselors have been integral to support the movement by coordinating, advertising and supervising get-togethers as the group formalizes their club charter on campus, it is the students who have developed the concept and are moving this project forward. Although we do not expect to go as viral as these iconic hashtags, we hope to use the social media hashtag to inspire other DHS Students, and even other high schoolers, to join our cause: to spread open-mindedness in schools, to share our stories and to ultimately form a more cohesive, positive community where our peers won’t feel as alone in their personal struggles.Įlephant in the Room is truly a youth movement. It’s amazing how a simple hashtag can have such profound effects. An older viral hashtag that I shared was the #ALSIceBucketChallenge. The tweet went viral with 19 million retweets and promoted a global movement of men and women sharing their stories of sexual abuse and harassment. One example that comes to mind is the popular hashtag #MeToo in 2017.
Social media has a way of getting people’s attention, and you see the influence it has everyday. Q: Were you inspired by any other social media awareness campaigns or specific hashtags?Ī: Absolutely. Two days of posting is all it took to get the word out. It was through social media we were able to get such a great turnout in our inaugural Elephant in the Room gathering. So for our project, this was the most effective way to get our message across. We are living in the age of social media it’s just how we communicate. You won’t see anyone in high school without a phone and some form of social media. Q: Why did you think that the best tool for your project was social media and the hashtag #YouCanTalkToMe?Ī: One thing with DHS students, or maybe all high school students, is that we always have our hands on a phone. To aid in the growth of the project, Kang and the Elephant in the Room team created stickers and joined a hashtag campaign #YouCanTalkToMe to raise awareness and reach out to those needing support. The goal of the movement is simple, but, improving and supporting teenage mental and social health is a huge undertaking. Through listening to each other, I hope students who feel isolated can relate to their peers. Elephant in the Room is an opportunity for students to share their personal stories, experiences and views freely in a safe environment.
This thought began to materialize into Elephant in the Room, organized gatherings where students have a place where they could hear the voices of their peers publicly and anonymously. It was then I wondered if he had people around him that he could talk to or could relate to. No one thought that anything was troubling him, and we could only question if things could have been different if we were there for him. His suicide shook me and his friends considerably. He was a teammate of mine on the track team who I had known since middle school, first as competitors and later as a friends. Q: What was your inspiration for this movement? How did it materialize?Ī: My motivation to act came last summer when a former DHS student took his own life. Junior Matthew Kang, along with a small group of students on the DHS campus, started the Elephant in the Room Project because he ultimately “envision a positive community of open-mindedness at Dublin High where all students can feel comfortable sharing their stories and feel a sense of unity in the common emotions we experience as high school students.” Intrigued by the movement on our campus, I reached out to Kang and attended the first informal gathering which hosted over 120 students and staff members.
At Dublin High School (DHS) in Dublin, California, the students have decided it is time to address the elephant in the room. In my eight years of teaching high school English, I have found more of my time on campus invested in the mental and social health of my students. Far too many of our secondary students struggle with depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety and isolation.