Lansing Sun

The Lansing Junior Board of Education updated the Lansing School District Board of Education on its "Mental Health Mondays" campaign at the district board's May 18 meeting and bid farewell to its president, Naomi Johnson, a senior at Everett High School, who is graduating and plans to attend Columbia University in the fall.

Sponsoring staff members Carrie Christian and Claudia Cabrera Rodriguez introduced the student officers at the meeting. 

"So junior board is a long-standing tradition here in Lansing," Rodriguez told the board. "It's been going on for 20 years as a student organization."

Student officers gave a presentation to the board, which aligned with the group's purpose to give students insight into the district board and represent their peers and classmates as the board makes decisions that affect them. Johnson was joined by Vice President Antonio Leija-Navarro, a junior at Eastern High, and Secretary Washington Dejesus Sampaio-Mayer, a freshman at Eastern. 

“Each year the Junior Board of Education is involved in a district-wide initiative to raise awareness for a current issue,” Sampaio-Mayer said. This year, the junior board picked "Mental Health Mondays" to help support students who were struggling and raise awareness among their peers. They wore green on Mondays and handed out bracelets and taught stress management techniques and how to discuss such issues. 

The junior board has student members from all three high schools and their middle schools, with staff advisors from each building. Board Member Robin Moore served as the organization's liaison to the board of education. The junior board met twice a month, as the board of education does, and voted on topics and decisions to formally submit to the board. 

The board honored the advisors, student board members, and student officers in attendance at the meeting. Student officers received special jackets in honor of their work representing their schools and peers this past year. Johnson said she plans to pursue an undergraduate degree in political science at Columbia and then study law. 

Trustee Robin Moore said, “It's been an honor serving as your liaison for the board. But I just want to say I'm so proud of all of you. And our absent students that aren't here.”