Unmasking Support for Mental Health in School

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Ezra showing off his Fiona Mask from the Cincinnati Zoo

This is the first of three columns in a back-to-school mental health series.

“Mask debates have returned to school board meetings. Many districts are mandating masks for everyone in the classroom, prompting the mental health cry of “these poor children” all over social media.”

Read the full column at the link below

Unmasking Support for Mental Health in School, by
I sat with my son in the school cafeteria. Wearing masks, we waited to meet his kindergarten teacher.

Read the second in the series at the link below

Mental Health Matters More Than Adolescent Milestones, by
My daughter was a junior in high school when her therapist called me into her office. I bounced my toddler on my knee and tried to absorb what the therapist was saying.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

Vaccines: They’re Worth the Trouble

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Getting my COVID Vaccine in April

“Beyond the pandemic deniers, the pushback to getting vaccinated boils down to fear. Fear of rare side effects. Fear of missing work. Mistrust in the vaccine’s speedy approval process, big government, corporate medicine or overall long-term unknowns. This fear prompts justifications for concerns and then settles on a decision that the vaccine is just not worth the trouble. But it is.”

Read the whole column at the link below

Vaccines: They’re Worth the Trouble, by
Shots are a part of my life. I self-inject medication once a week to manage my psoriatic arthritis.

Read more columns from Bonnie HERE and HERE

Immigration Is our Universal American Story

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“When asked what drove her to see it through, she said that she wanted to be an American citizen like her children and husband. She wanted to show them she could do it and make her family proud. Manuela also very much wanted the right to vote. On July 14, 2017, she was sworn in as an American citizen.

“The opposition to refugees and immigrants is strong, but it is the most universal story we share as Americans. It should be the common ground that unites us.”

Click belw to read the full column

Immigration Is our Universal American Story, by
Last week, a federal judge in Houston ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy was

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE

Is Your Car Childproof?

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My newborn son asleep in the car

Parents are busy. New parents especially are stressed and exhausted. It takes its toll. You must understand how ridiculous it sounds to the parents when they have to answer to the authorities. They had just made the ultimate mistake, and all they could come up with is the horrific utterance, “I forgot.”

Is Your Car Childproof?
Signs along the highway read,

Read more columns from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE

Abortion and the Catholic Currency of Shame

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“Though I appreciated that particular priest, I no longer consider myself Catholic. The recent meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is a great example as to why. The bishops voted to draft guidelines for receiving the Eucharist with the goal of ultimately preventing lawmakers, including President Joe Biden, from receiving Communion if they supported a woman’s right to choose. Catholic leaders are exerting their power through public shame, hoping to influence decisions of our supposedly secular legislature.

“It is the same powerplay that Catholic bishops in New York state exhibited in1967 that resulted in something unexpected from their religious peers. It’s a nugget of little-known history that would serve Catholics a great reminder.”

Read the full column at the link below

Abortion and the Catholic Currency of Shame, by
One day in Catholic school, Sister Mary Francis pointed her finger like a gun at my classmate and said shooting her was no different than abortion. Both, she said, were intentional murder.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE

Love, Loss and Pandemic Puppies

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Bella in 2019

My daughter got Bella at her dad’s house shortly after the divorce. My ex even called the sweet yellow lab “the divorce dog.” Visits with dad also meant time with Bella, which was great when my daughter was 8 years old, but the teen years brought work, band practice and a social life. Visitation with dad became more sporadic. Then, my ex asked if we would dog sit. Bella was a senior dog by then, and we were all smitten. We asked if we could just keep her. He said yes.

Bella and I bonded in a way I hadn’t anticipated. I worked from home, and she was my constant companion. My daughter grew up and moved to an apartment of her own, but Bella stayed with me.

COVID-19 brought with it a puppy boom as people sought comfort and companionship during quarantine and isolation — but for me, Bella was there. We took walks in the woods and played in the yard with my son. Our circle got smaller as the pandemic began to rage. Schools closed, my husband was furloughed, and then, just as everything shut down, we had to say goodbye to Bella. That stacking of hardships is known as collective — or cumulative — grief, and I wasn’t sure I could take it.

Read the full column at the link below

Love, Loss and Pandemic Puppies
Every time we welcome a pet into our lives, we also welcome the inevitable heartbreak. We know how it ends, and yet we still open our homes and our hearts to four-footed companions.

Read more from Bonnie Jean HERE and HERE.

For Father’s Day, I Wish I Could Tell Grandpa He Was Right

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Grandpa Lou retired in 1990 at the age of 70. That same year, he tried to impart some wisdom on his rebellious granddaughter who was begrudgingly headed into a typing class.

My Grandpa Lou was my dad’s stepdad and the only grandpa on my father’s side I ever knew. Once, on a visit with him, I lamented that I would have to take a typing class in the fall. I was 15 and entering my sophomore year of high school. We sat at a picnic table in a park and watched my younger cousins run and play. Grandpa assured me that learning how to type would be a vital skill for me as I entered the job market. I was offended. It was 1990 and I was certain he meant that I was destined to be someone’s secretary. Had he not seen me playing my guitar on his front porch that very morning? I was to be a musician. I loved to write, too, and I would surely journal about his expectations of me later. It would seem we were both full of assumptions.

I would learn way too late to tell him that I was wrong. 

Read the whole column by clicking below.

For Father’s Day, I Wish I Could Tell Grandpa He Was Right, by
Grandpa Lou retired in 1990 at the age of 70. That same year, he tried to impart some wisdom on his rebellious granddaughter who was begrudgingly headed into a typing class.

Read more from Bonnie HERE and HERE

Every Path Is Valid

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“I did not attend my high school graduation. My family had a lot on its shoulders. My dad and stepmom were going through a divorce. I was told the Friday before my senior prom that it was over.

Graduation photos are all over my social media feed, and even The New York Times featured prom photos on their front page. High school graduation is no doubt a rite of passage and a major transition in life. But there was no point in pomp and circumstance for me. It would seem my future was not so bright anyways. I was a horrible student. Don’t get me wrong, I loved to learn, I just didn’t learn well in a classroom. For others, college would be the next logical step, but I barely had the grades to graduate high school.

I clung to the words of Chuck Keller, my junior year English teacher. He had told me, “Your success in high school does not determine your success in life.”

Read the full column by clicking below

Every Path Is Valid
My experiences would really inform my parenting.

Getting the Full Story in the Age Of Media Mistrust

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I really enjoyed this conversation with Julian Rubinstein and Terrance Roberts. Julian’s new book The Holly which focuses on Terrance’s story is a great read that manages to shine a light on how local media failed Northeast Denver. The interview recording is linked below. I hope you’ll watch.

I also reviewed this book for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and that review is linked below the recording. The book is worth the read.

Almost dead in Denver
In ‘The Holly,’ journalist Julian Rubinstein tells the story of how one Denver neighborhood dealt with gangs, drugs and gentrification.

Read more from Bonnie HERE and HERE

For more author interviews click HERE

The Privilege to Push Against Progress

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Two supporters help up a banner at the back of the auditorium to show their support for the proposed social equity course.

critical race theory

“I recently moved back to my hometown of Fort Thomas, Kentucky, located just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. I promised my husband, who’s Hispanic, that it is more progressive and more diverse than when I was growing up. I also sold him on the fact that it is one of the top school districts in the state. But, as I sat in a community meeting in our local high school auditorium and listened to my fellow community members make public statements about a proposed elective course on social equity, I worried that I was wrong.

Many of the comments at the microphone were in favor of teaching social equity. Some shared a personal story to illustrate why it’s important to them. But those who spoke out against the course hammered home the same sound bite that’s been echoing across the country as states seek to ban critical race theory (CRT) from public education.”

Read the full column at the link below.
The Privilege to Push Against Progress
Matt Bertasso, the Highlands High School outgoing principal, said the social equity class in Fort Thomas was tabled because “It did not pass the neutrality test.” But our sanitized stories of America don’t pass the neutrality test either. Perhaps our curriculum should start by being honest.

Read More of Bonnie’s work HERE and HERE.