Like most schools, Rock Point School has temporarily suspended our on-campus activities due to COVID-19. As we made arrangements with families to get students home safely, we also started to make plans with our staff about how we could best support our students and their families at this uncertain time. While we know it is necessary to be physically distant at this time, we also know it is crucially important to stay deeply connected to our community.

Rock Point School teachers and staff have been working hard to shift learning online while we all stay home and stay healthy during this crisis. Teachers are meeting with each of their classes for 30 minutes a day via Google Hangout and will continue to receive work and give feedback in Google Drive. While things like Chemistry lab will have to be changed pretty dramatically, we are confident that our students and staff will rise to the challenge and continue learning as best we can during this time. As C.J. likes to say, "We will not let the perfect get in the way of the good!"

On our first day back from winter break, Victoria Pearson, the Statewide Youth Organizer from Outright Vermont, came to work with students about creating inclusive school communities. Victoria described ways in which LGBTQ+ students are vulnerable to struggling in schools, and helped us discuss ways we can all be more aware and more inclusive. We discussed our own experiences in the world, and times we had been affirmed or had struggled. We then discussed how we might be better allies for people in need of our support. We left feeling invigorated, and with our intentions set on being even more intentional and supportive in the new year. 

The United State's Attorney for Vermont, Christina E. Nolan, is passionate about the opiate crisis. She has worked hard to create programs in our state that treat and prevent opiate addiction, as well as enforcing the laws. One of her goals is to get into the community and spread the message that recovery is possible and reduce the stigma that recovering addicts experience. Enter Justin Goulet.

Since its inception in 1995 by Jake Burton Carpenter, The Chill Foundation has worked with over 25,000 young people to help them overcome challenges through boardsports. Rock Point School has been participating in Chill, almost since the beginning. This past year, the program selected four of our students to participate in a leadership program and be featured in a film, "Built on Boards." 

Presentation by Maya Christobel on Sept. 25, 2019, 6 - 7:30pm RPS Library Maya Christobel is a Harvard Psychotherapist, having done her Master’s and Doctoral work and Harvard Graduate School of Education in Marriage and Family Therapy. She has practiced privately for 33 years focusing on teens and young people on the spectrum. Maya is also a pioneer in the field of bio-technology and trauma, as well as a writer, author and filmmaker.