SANDPOINT — Connections is a 30-minute program built into Sandpoint High School education hours once a month where student mentors lead their peers in activities centered around the Sources of Strength wheel.

The program has been met with mixed reviews by the student body over the last semester.

The idea for Connections was born in last year’s mentors class, originally a one-semester class for juniors and seniors to help freshmen make the transition to high school.

“(Mentors) wanted to have more time with the freshman and to be able to have more connections than with just freshman,” guidance counselor Cindy Albertson said. “It was really kid driven.”

Paid for by a federal grant, SOS curriculum provided group training for prospective peer mentors beginning last spring. SOS training has continued for students in place of the previous mentors class and will now be an all-year course.

SOS emphasizes using eight strengths to draw on in tough times. Strengths include family support, positive friends, spirituality, medical access, generosity, mental health, healthy activity, and mentors.

“The main focus of (SOS) is suicide prevention; however, it also addresses strengths and other things just to help strengthen you as a person, so it’s not all just focusing on suicide,” Albertson said.

Although Albertson cites suicide prevention as the main focus of Connections, many students feel that the topic of suicide has not been sufficiently addressed by the program.

“It seems like they’re just trying to play catch up,” senior Nathan Roe said. “There was no discussion of suicide or suicide prevention in my first two years of high school, and then as soon as the first suicide happened, they just sort of opened the floodgates.”

Connections groups are made up of 20 students of mixed grade levels and meet once a month, which has further caused students to doubt the tangible effectiveness of the program.

“I don’t feel like Connections is actually going to be a very long-term beneficial thing,” sophomore Katya Keseloff said. “I feel like there’s a better solution, which is overall everyone working on positivity as a constant thing instead of just an every once in awhile or once-a-month kind of a thing.”

Albertson, on the other hand, said that the counseling department has already begun to see payoffs from the program.

“The payoff that we can see right away is that kids are referring,” Albertson said. “They’re breaking the code of silence and they’re referring their friends. They’re reporting more to counselors or to their mentors who then report to us.”

Apart from uncertainty that Connections will have the impact desired by the administration and counseling department, students are hopeful that with some changes Connections could be what the school is looking for.

“(Connections) absolutely could be a beneficial thing,” Roe said. “I think that people from different classes and experiences and backgrounds being able to come together and share ideas has potential to be really good, but I think that there needs to be some serious remastering of the way that it’s operated.”

One of those ideas is to separate students into different grade groups at the beginning and then reconvene to discuss more general things later in the class or year.

“It should be underclassmen and upperclassmen, at least in the beginning, so that they can have conversations and talk about topics that are more applicable to that age range,” Roe said. “Also, if the classes were a little bit smaller people could share their opinions more and have deeper conversations about them.”

Although upperclassmen see room for improvement, many underclassmen are not as quick to criticize Connections.

“I don’t really hate Connections,” freshman Ethan Darling said. “It’s good to kind of get around and meet with people.”

While students who don’t complain about connections do exist, the overwhelming attitude about Connections not positive.

“My least favorite part about Connections is probably just the fact that everybody complains about it so much, because that just adds to the negativity that is already present in the school and it doesn’t help the atmosphere at all,” Keseloff said.

The greatest benefit of Connections cited by all students was a break in the middle of the day to “unwind” and “not really have to think” in the words of Keseloff and Roe respectively.

“Most of the time all we’re doing are generic icebreaker activities,” Roe said.

While the future of Connections and the changes that will be made are uncertain, Albertson said she welcomes feedback and ideas for improvement from the community and student body.

“Ideally, I would like (Connections classes) to meet more often so that ... they would really know each other, and I think that’s kind of one of the downfalls this year,” Albertson said. “But if you start as a freshman you’re going to stay in that same group for four years, so that’s going to add up to some pretty quality connections. If we wait … those connections can get stronger.”