Arts Magnet News!

Dear Altadena Eliot Arts Families,

Monday schools are closed in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his monumental contributions to the civil rights movement.

We invite you to join us for the PUSD MLK celebration being hosted at Eliot Arts Magnet.

• At 8:30 am there will be a "Teach In" where visitors will learn more about Dr. King's impact on our modern lives.

• Then at 10:00 am the program begins in our auditorium with a keynote address by one of our new PUSD Board Members, Patrice Marshall McKenzie. We will have student performances including a performance by our new Eliot Dance Team, and we will celebrate our student essay and art contest winners. Join us with your children if you can for this wonderful annual event. Learn more about the significance of Dr. King's life here.

• After the program on Monday, join us at Handel's Ice Cream in support of our elementary school! See flyer below :)

MIDDLE SCHOOL PICTURE DAYS ARE TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. Please let your students know so they are dressed the way they wish to be photographed.

Our middle school is hosting a shoe drive fundraiser now- March 17th! Clean out your closet and drop off your gently used and no longer needed new shoes at Eliot’s main office or in the bin at AAM. Your shoes will receive a second life, helping those in need and you will be helping Eliot’s PTSA. It’s a win-win!

Eliot Arts Tower Tour has been rescheduled for 2/24 due to the excessive rain. Please get your tickets by scanning the QR code below. This is going to be a fabulous event!

This past week we celebrated our elementary Cougar Values and hosted our first ever middle school Discovery Day. It was a wonderful jam packed week and we look forward to another wonderful week ahead.

Reminder to middle school parents. We still have a dress code, please do not send students to school in pajamas. Order your Husky Wear by clicking on the live link.

There is an interesting article about Social Media's Effect on Teen's Mental Health that was forwarded to me by a parent. It's a short but important read. 90% of our behavior issues at the middle school are based on social media, particularly Instagram. If you have a middle schooler, please support our efforts by limiting and monitoring your child's social media usage.

SAVE THE DATES:

Saturday, January 21 9-11 am, join us for our first Design Team meeting of 2023 in the Eliot Arts Library! This is a deep dive and important conversation about our One School, Two Campus Design. Please come bring your voice to the table. All are welcome to attend.

February 17, 6-8 pm Middle School Sweetheart's Dance.

Be sure to purchase your tickets for our Eliot Annual Fund Tower Tour happening on February 24 from 4-6 pm. See flyer below!

FYI, if you receive attendance notifications and have questions or concerns, please email Rosa Magdaleno at magdaleno.rosa@pusd.us for our elementary site or Felicia Lee at lee.felicia@pusd.us for our middle school site.

Please visit our Middle School Attendance Corner:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wGodwhIZgzNfEut0ascrp53lcLQkIu0JwABK3VTSte4/edit

It's a great week to be a Cougar and a Husky!

Yours in Service,

Dr. Scheckel, Principal

Experts are increasingly warning of a connection between heavy social media use and mental health issues in children — a hot topic now driving major lawsuits against tech giants.

Why it matters: Seattle Public Schools' recently filed lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, Snap and others — which accuses the social media giants of contributing to a youth mental health crisis — is one of hundreds of similar cases.

Driving the news: Some scientists who study technology's effects on children say the negatives far outweigh any positives.

• "There is a substantial link to depression, and that link tends to be stronger among girls," Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and leading expert on the subject, tells Axios.
• "The more time the teen, particularly a teen girl, spends using social media, the more likely it is that she will be depressed," said Twenge, whose book "iGen" describes how technology has shaped Gen Z.
• The same is true for self-harm, Twenge said. "The more hours a day she spends using social media, the more likely she is to engage in self-harm behaviors — the link is there for boys as well, it's just not as large."

Backstory: In a landmark ruling in October, a British authority found Meta-owned Instagram culpable for the suicide of 14-year-old Molly Russell after she was exposed to self-harm content on the platform.

• During the inquest, executives from Meta and Pinterest apologized for the content Molly saw.
• The coroner requested that those companies and others take various actions to prevent future deaths, including setting up separate platforms for children and adults.

Where it stands: Twenge and Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, maintain a 256-page Google doc of all published articles about social media and mental health.

• It's meant to shed light on the question: "Does social media use contribute to the rise of adolescent mood disorders (depression and anxiety) and related behaviors (especially self-harm and suicide) that began around 2012/2013?"
• It paints a picture of TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. as addictive platforms that make people unhappier the more time they spend on them.
• "Most of the large studies show that heavy users of social media are about twice as likely to be depressed as light users," says Twenge, whose forthcoming book, "Generations," describes the differences among the six current generations of Americans.
• While some kids could be spending time on social media because they're depressed to begin with, most studies make efforts to control for such factors and variables, Twenge said.

How it works: Social media can harm children emotionally and psychologically in several ways.

• Social comparison is when everybody else's life looks more glamorous online — they're invited to cooler parties or look better in a bikini (whether or not the photo has been retouched).
• Displacement occurs when kids spend so much time online that they don't get enough sleep or hang out with family and friends.

• Pornography is reaching kids on social media at younger ages, according to the nonprofit Common Sense Media.

Between the lines: Specialized legal and health care practices are springing up to support children harmed by social media (and their parents).

• Seattle's Social Media Victims Law Center sues on behalf of kids who have been injured or killed through viral stunts like the TikTok "blackout challenge" or by buying fentanyl-laced pills on Snapchat, said Matthew Bergman, founding attorney.
• "Most kids that encounter social media don't have adverse mental health instances, but a very, very significant percentage do," Bergman tells Axios.

Yes, but: Social media's benefits can include "connecting meaningfully with friends and family, learning a new skill, or accessing health care," per a 2021 report from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy (which also highlighted many of the negative effects listed above).

• For LGBTQ+ youth, social platforms are important "for feeling less alone, expressing themselves, finding inspiration, and getting support."

The bottom line: Experts have proposed solutions that tech companies say they're trying to implement — such as more stringent age verification — as well as more radical ones, such as turning off children's access to social platforms at night.

• Yet — as anyone who's ever been a teenager knows — it's easy enough to sidestep the controls that grownups try to place on you.

If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat with someone at 988lifeline.org. En Español.

• Open Enrollment Dates for the 2023-24 school year are now posted on our website. All current PUSD families will receive a hard copy of the Open Enrollment calendar in the mail in mid-October, and we will send extras to your school sites in October.
• Sibling and Program Priority Registration applications go live online Oct. 24, 2022, 9AM - Nov. 14, 2022, 4PM.

Hello Huskies,

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Your PTSA is hard at work planning the new semester. We could use your help.

Here's what we got so far:

• PE wear, Hoodies and Sweats. Order yours by January 13th (cash or credit card). Order forms will be available in the main office beginning Monday.
• Shoe Fundraiser: For 2 months starting January 17, we will be collecting gently used & new shoes to raise money for PTSA.

Remember all events / fundraisers are for everyone.You don't have to be a PTSA member to participate. You do have to be a member to give input on how the money is spent.

Let's have a great semester!

Michael McCarthy

Eliot Arts PTSA President

"Many hands make light work"

Amazon Smile

http://smile.amazon.com or https://org.amazon.com/npo/portal

Please consider making a recurring donation of $45 to one or both of our Annual Funds! Our annual funds help to create a bridge for special services and arts programs at each of our campuses. Our annual funds are separate. Altadena's annual fund is chaired by Ms. Tasiah LeConte and Eliot's annual fund is chaired by Ms. Wendy Silva. Please join their committees and consider making a donation today!

January

• 9 School Resumes
• 10 Elementary SSC @ 3:00 pm and joint PT(S)A meeting @ 6pm
• 12 Elementary School Tour @ 9 am
• 13 Cougar Values Awards Assembly @ 7:50 am
• 14 Middle School Discovery Day @ 9am, Tower Tour @ 4pm
• 16 NO School in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Handel's FUNdraiser!
• 17-18 Middle School Photo Days
• 21 Design Team Meeting @ 9am at Eliot Arts
• 25 District Spelling Bee @ 4 pm