William Tell Elementary students spread positive messages for mental health month

At William Tell Elementary, the sidewalk outside 1235 31st Street carried a message meant to last beyond one school day: encouragement matters. Tell City-Troy Township School Corp highlighted the WTE Student Council’s positive sidewalk messages for May Mental Health Awareness Month, giving elementary students a visible role in a schoolwide wellness effort.

The project was simple, but its setting made it useful. Students at the Tell City school used sidewalk writing to turn an everyday entrance into a reminder about kindness, emotional awareness and belonging. In a month when classrooms are balancing testing, field trips, award programs and the long lead-up to summer break, that kind of low-cost messaging can help set the tone for the school day before students ever reach their rooms.

William Tell Elementary’s clubs-and-activities listing shows WTE Student Council is part of the school’s regular student leadership options, alongside WTE Robotics, WTE Broadcast Team, WTE Science Team and WTE Spell Bowl Team. That matters because the mental health messages were not a one-time event tacked onto the calendar. They came from a student group already built into the school’s culture.

The district’s parent information page also lists both a Wellness Policy and an Anti-Bullying Policy, underscoring that student well-being is part of the formal framework at Tell City-Troy Township School Corp. The corporation says it serves 1,400 students across two schools, so the sidewalk campaign at William Tell Elementary fit into a broader system rather than standing alone as a symbolic gesture.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month across the United States, and Mental Health America has led the effort every May since founding it in 1949 to promote mental wellness and reduce stigma. SAMHSA says the month was established that same year to raise awareness of mental health and wellness and to celebrate recovery from mental illness. The national effort reflects a real need: Mental Health America’s county and state dashboard draws on more than 10 million mental health screens from 2020 to 2025, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that 16.5% of U.S. youth ages 6 to 17 experienced a mental health disorder in 2016.

For Perry County families, the value of the William Tell Elementary project was its accessibility. It showed that even young students can take part in messaging that normalizes encouragement and support, while the district’s policies and student programs point to a wider structure aimed at keeping well-being part of everyday school life.