Sometimes a school crisis erupts on a high school campus unexpectedly. Other times, there is a slow build-up of tension before the crescendo, and that crescendo can be hate speech or any number of incidents. Twenty years ago, I was a student in crisis at Wales Academy. Although I was more in tune with the momentum of chaos and cause for concern, I was adamant that my action was justified and that I was a healthy teenager.
I fully believed that everyone around me misunderstood my behavior and my thinking when it came to my day to day interactions in school and my larger plan to make more friends.
J. Peters (Wales High School)
“Wales High School: First Diagnosis” is a front-row view of High School in the early 2000s during the rise of the millennial in a high school setting. Amid this new era in America for young adults hoping to one day transition to higher education, Jacques Peters and his makeshift group of friends, acquaintances, and enemies from within his social group will make visible some critical questions for aging youth: 1) why are friendship and healthy connections so crucial in adolescent development? 2) what is healthy in the context of adolescent development when passion, mood, and thoughts are all as enmeshed as they were in the student body at Jacques small high school in Wales Academy. This book will get underneath the root of Small Fingernails, elaborating on the urgency of J. Peters’s mission to New London University and the new life he sought to establish for himself after his heart-wrenching experience in Wales high school. Wales High School: First Diagnosis follows the life of young J. Peters in his junior and senior years at Wales high school when the shadow of his mental health disorder first entered his young life and his primary education environment.
The reader will get a first-hand look at Jacques’s attitude in the classroom at Wales High School. From English class to Biology, Jacques Peters’s character will take on new life and meaning for readers interested in how this iconic character became the person who initiated Contesting Admission to University on Watch. Indeed, Jacques will contest admission to classes in this book, petitioning into honors-level courses where he was restricted due to poor performance as a result of his new mental health disorder and burgeoning social problem, which will blossom into full-blown stalking, warranting the attention of Wales police and the psychiatric hospital. Readers should be prepared for joy, hope, grief, and labored panic-stricken horror as this book unfolds.
Author Info:
Max E. Guttman
Max E. Guttman is the owner of Mindful Living LCSW, PLLC, a private mental health practice in Yonkers, New York.
