CASSY counselors provide therapeutic support for students

After the suicide of Audrie Pott in the fall of 2012 and the resulting fallout, the school has employed three counselors from the Counseling and Support Services for Youth (CASSY) in an effort to provide extra therapeutic support on campus. 

The school offered students access to an on-campus therapist in the past, but with CASSY, three counselors are on campus to help students deal with personal issues.

CASSY is a nonprofit organization that serves students in 24 schools across the Bay Area, including Los Gatos High School, where they have been helping students for five years. 

This October, the Audrie Pott Foundation donated more than $5,000 to CASSY, inspiring individual donors to also give money in Audrie’s name that totaled $10,000.

In an email sent to the Falcon, the Pott family said, “We selected their organization because it was such a perfect fit for all the things that we were hoping to accomplish on the youth counseling side of our charity.”

The Pott family said that they became familiar with CASSY after meeting Polly Naber, whose daughter attended Los Gatos High and took her life four years ago. The Nabers also have a charity that benefits CASSY.

Assistant principal Brian Safine said the 1440 Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has also helped to fund CASSY at Saratoga High.

Using these donations and district funds, CASSY has been able to help fund several services on campus, including the Common Roots program run by peers, depression and suicide awareness presentations and crises intervention and treatment. 

“Both the Audrie Pott Foundation and CASSY are working together to support children and teens by having comprehensive mental health services available on local school campuses free of charge,” Bay Area CASSY director Liz Scheoben said.

Common Roots co-founder senior My-Lan Le said that CASSY counselor Kim Cousens is the adviser of this organization and was involved in training the peer counselors.

“[Cousens] advises us if we have any questions on what we’re doing,” Le said. “Since she’s a professional, she can tell us how to better approach certain situations or when things are out of our control.”

In addition to Common Roots, Scheoben said that the CASSY staff at the school, consisting of Cousens, Jessica Wang and Kelly Christie, have presented to freshman health classes and plan to do the same for 10th through 12th graders throughout the year.

“We do a presentation on mental health awareness, including depression and suicide,” Scheoben said. “We talk about warning signs and healthy ways to cope [and] safe cyber practices.”

According to freshman Stefanie Ting, the CASSY presentation taught her that students shouldn’t be afraid to ask for emotional help.

“It's nice to know that there's someone there to help you when you can't help yourself,” Ting said.

Approximately 70 students see CASSY counselors regularly, Safine said. Although the school’s four guidance counselors are the “primary points of contact” for students,  Safine said a counselor, teacher or friend may refer someone to a CASSY counselor anonymously if he or she feels that individual could need the extra help. The CASSY counselors can be found in room in the office during school hours.

“We are very proud of the fact that students are willing to come in and get the support they need,” Safine said. “I think there has been a climate of care here that’s important to our work.”