OUR GRAY HAWK FAMILY works together to help students feel safe, loved, and inspired so they can be empowered learners and engaged citizens.

As you will read more below in the Neuro News, the mental health issues that our GLOBAL community is dealing with have weighed heavily on so many. Whether it is from a parent perspective or educator perspective, mental health is a concerning topic that needs to be addressed and given much more attention that it has been. Last week I announced our first Community Conversation involving watching the documentary "Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope" and was very excited to see the response we received.

However, upon reflection I have decided to make this event our first of the 22/23 school year with the idea being that Community Conversations will be a Quarterly + event hosted by Gray Hawk for the metro community dealing with a variety of topics focusing on mental health and other issues impacting our community. I have reached out to all of those that have responded to let them know of the change and the reason for the change. I am excited to have this kick off our 22/23 Community Conversations series.

I will also reach out to the high school to see about locating child care help so kids could attend if adults were not able to find a babysitter.

Students will sign yearbooks on Monday, May 23 in the field on the West side of GRAY HAWK. Time TBA. We have a VERY limited number of yearbooks left for sale (less than 5). If you did not order one, please call the office to check for availability. They are on a first come first served basis.

(The glare on the pictures does not appear on the yearbook)

This week as we look at some more of the titles we received from the BLEF Grant our focus will be on some books featuring Asian Americans. This is a fun collection of stories!

Our featured story this week is Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho. This story has been recognized with numerous awards! It is A New York Times Bestseller and #1 Indie Bestseller · A School Library Journal Best Book of 2021 · Included in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love List · Featured in Forbes, Oprah Daily, The Cut, and Book Riot · Golden Poppy Book Award Winner · Featured in Chicago Public Library’s Best Books of 2021 · 2021 Nerdie Award Winner · A Kirkus Children's Best Book of 2021.

This story focuses on a young Asian American girl who realizes her eyes look different than many of her peers. Through beautiful illustrations and word images presented by mother, grandmother and others she realizes how special she is.

Each week we will provide clues to the identity of someone from throughout history that has made an important impact on our world. We provide these clues each morning and then reveal the person to OUR GRAY HAWKS on Friday morning with a brief video. Here are the clues from this past week.

• I was born in Texas in 1892. I was the 10th of 13 children. I loved Reading and Math. My mom was African American and my dad was a Native American. My parents were sharecroppers which meant that they used someone else’s land for their crops and in exchange gave the landowner part of their crop in exchange for using the land. African American children could not go to school during the cotton harvesting season but I managed to complete the 8th grade. I saved my money for a long time and even tried to go to college but my money ran out after the first year.

• When I was 23, I moved to Chicago and began to work at the Chicago White Sox Barber Shop. I heard a lot of stories from pilots during World War I and it was then that I decided to become a pilot. During that time, women and black people could not attend flying school but my friend told me that I could learn to fly in France. In 1921, I became the first female African American pilot and the first female Native American pilot to hold an international pilot's license.

• I traveled back to the United States to work as a barnstormer, performing tricks and stunts in my airplane. I flew in loops and different patterns while audiences watched. I also taught flying lessons and encouraged women to become pilots. In April 1926, I was practicing for an upcoming performance with my mechanic William Will. William was piloting the plane when it flipped over and started to dive. I fell out of the plane and I died. William was not able to regain control of the plane and it crashed into the ground. They later figured out that a wrench we used to work on the engine was left in it and it jammed the controls leading to the crash.

• After I passed away, I was recognized with several awards including being put on a US postage stamp, being inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and even had a character named after me in the children’s TV show Doc McStuffins. I also had two nicknames that always made me smile: Queen Bess and Brave Bessie.

When I was in Houston, I had the privilege of hearing US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona speak and several times he referred to the the US Surgeon General's Youth Mental Health Advisory report. It was a report that I had heard referenced only in passing but came up several times throughout my extended weekend in Houston so I downloaded the report (included below) and so much of the report resonated with me. Suggestions from the report include:

1. recognizing mental health is an essential part of OUR overall health
2. empower youth and their families to recognize, manage, and learn from difficult emotions
3. ensure EVERY child has access to high quality, affordable, and culturally competent mental health care
4. support the mental health of children and youth in educational, community, and childcare settings
5. increase data collection and research to identify and respond to youth mental health needs

There are so many things that influence the shaping of the mental health of our youth (as shown in the graphic below), and I FIRMLY believe that it is a pressing issue that we cannot solve on our own. It is up to society to address these issues.

I would like to encourage you to check out the article below from the Kansas Reflector as well as the Surgeon General's Youth Mental Health Advisory report. We MUST begin to come together as a community - not just locally, but globally - to address these issues in order to make LEARNING for ALL children more accessible. TOGETHER WE CAN DO IT!