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HIGHLAND — High school students are always bringing home notes, homework and grades from their teachers, but what about a video from their teachers with one message — "we see you."
Lone Peak High School is home of the Knights, but it's also home to almost 2,500 students — a place where it might seem easy to get lost in the crowd. However, teachers are trying to change that.
Jake Rees is one of them. He has been teaching at Lone Peak High School for eight years, but in all that time he's never had an assignment quite like this.
"If we all had the power to rewind the clock what would we say? And say it perfectly," asked Rees.
From that question came a poem put together by several staff members. It has one purpose: to let their students know they're not alone.
You are more than your outfit. You're more than your makeup. You are more than what side of the knight you sit on.
–Lone Peak high school teacher
"I've had close friends and people that I wish I could say, 'you can do this,’ ” Rees said.
The messages in the video come from a variety of faculty members. One says, "You are more than your outfit. You're more than your makeup. You are more than what side of the knight you sit on."
Another teachers says, "This is not the end. High school was never supposed to be the end."
The video was played for the first time in front of the student body at an assembly on Tuesday. Student Emily Lewis helped present it as part of the school's CARE team — a group designed to support other students.
"Everyone just sat there speechless for a little while, and I looked around and people were crying," she said. "Everyone knows what has gone on at Lone Peak. The hard times, the good times, everyone knows."
Those hard times include a number of student suicides at the school in recent years.
Now Lewis and faculty at the school hope the video will make a difference not just for students having suicidal thoughts but for teens struggling with a variety of issues.
"The point of the project was never naive enough to think this will solve our problems," Rees said. "The point of it was to add one more way, one more tool, one more way of dealing with our problems."
The entire video was shot, produced and edited by student Ethan Harris. The video is now being shared quickly through social media. The staff hopes it will spread far beyond Utah County and help students at schools all over.
