Joliet Central has decided to add a few new rooms to the school. One of them being “The Cool Down Room!” in room 357A.  Everybody has emotions, and everybody handles their emotions differently, but sometimes it is not possible, especially as young adults. “From time to time, students need a space to cool down for a variety of reasons.  They might be anxious, depressed, or upset.  The Cool Down Room is designed to be a space students can visit to help them de-escalate and return to class.” explains Jeffrey Riley, “A group of teachers in our MTSS team came up with the idea to open a Cool Down Room.  These types of rooms exist at other schools and they have been successful,” Mr. Riley adds. It has been hard for many people to go back to the “normal”  after being quarantined for a year, and teachers understand that. Ashley Samsa says, “We realized that many students either didn’t have or had lost the coping mechanisms to deal with large group settings like school, and we wanted to provide a space to allow for students to take the time they needed.” Students themselves do believe that the cool down room is a helpful place, most that have gone have had a good experience, and have felt extremely better. One student was Tyleah Green, “I was feeling stressed out about all the work that I needed to get done, and I had a test that day. I felt like I was about to break down and therefore decided to head over to the cooldown room, and it was one of my best experiences.” She continues on to explain what it looked like and how it felt, “It was fairly quiet, and there were few people. I spent two periods there, and none of the teachers forced me out. They let me stay and every five minutes they would check up on me. The room itself felt safe and peaceful.” The room also has many ways to calm down like tearing up newspapers, stress balls, and many other ways that will help students feel safe!