Montreal teens face 'high stress' trying to make honour roll

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been updated to remove the name and picture of a minor who no longer consented to being in the story.

Many Grade 10 high school students are hearing the message that it's the most important year for grades and they say they're spending long hours and late nights doing homework.

Jahleel Gabriel-Collins, a Grade 10 student at LaSalle Comprehensive Community High School, is determined to make the honour roll.

The 15-year-old's dream is to play professional basketball and become an engineer.

Jahleel is not yet on the honour roll but says top grades are key to making his dream come true.

"I don't want to be the other basketball player that just averages 70s. I want to be with the guys [who make the honour roll]," he said.

His mother, Tanisha Collins, says she notices the negative effects stress sometimes has on her son.

"It's headaches and extreme fatigue," Collins said.

Jahleel admits he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night to revise his school work.

"It's just to prepare myself just in case of what the teacher's going to ask you have to be prepared, you can't not be prepared," he said.

Stress management workshops

Jahleel attends high school within the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB), which says that strengthening mental health is a key objective for its schools this year.

"So that means schools staff as well as parents will be sitting down discussing what more we need to do to address that important objective," said Cindy Finn, director of student services at the LBPSB.

Lester B. Pearson schools have psychologists and guidance counsellors available to students and the board has also partnered with stress researchers from McGill University who have developed a 45-minute workshop teaching stress management to students.

More than 800 students within the LBPSB have participated in the workshop and the majority found it effective, Finn said.

Students at Royal West Academy, within the English Montreal School Board, are getting ongoing support through the school's Mind POP program, which focuses on teaching mindfulness and time management skills.

One of the first initiatives in that program was to make the honour roll private by putting a stamp on the report card instead of posting it publicly.

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"The shame of not being on the honour roll or publicly on the honour roll or that [worry] 'Am I going to be on that list?' is diminished and that's very helpful in reducing the anxiety," said Jan Mateus, co-ordinator of Mind POP at Royal West Academy.

Mateus said the program overall has led to a dramatic decrease in panic attacks at the school.

That's a change Collins would welcome at her son's school.

"Remove the honour roll and celebrate their achievements. It's going to do wonders, it's going to motivate them and I think we [would] see a big difference," Collins said.

Her son isn't sure he agrees. Jahleel's staying focused on getting top marks.

"I'm choosing to make it to my dream even if I don't make it, I at least want to be near it," he said.