At a school with such high expectations and pressure, mental illness seems to run rampant through the halls of WHHS. After months of debate, WHHS and Cincinnati Public Schools officially decided to hire a full-time psychologist for the 2018-2019 school year.
Many students appear to struggle with stress and school-related anxiety. A full-time resource appeared to be a necessity.
Susan Flowers is an old friend to the WHHS community, serving as an appointment-only resource at first, but now has a new role. She is officially titled as a full-time school psychologist this school year, with an open office that can be visited at any time.
All students need to take advantage of the resources around them. Flowers makes this very easy by taking the time to talk and work out plans with teachers and administrators so they can better support you.
“Our teachers are very supportive and our administrators are above and beyond what I’ve ever worked with anywhere else,” Flowers said. “We talk at night, you know, they have their families to go home to and I can still call and talk to them about a student and tell them this was going on and ask if we can meet tomorrow.”

Flowers’s office is a safe place for everyone. She advocates strongly for students to pay attention to their friends and their mental health. If you notice your friends are acting differently than normal, alert Flowers as soon as possible.
“Come back [to your friends] and kind of move forward. They don’t want to rehash what just happened. And then, you can always tell a friend in private. Hey, I don’t want to pry but if you ever want to talk, I’m here for you, and you leave it at that,” Flowers said.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, depressed or any other difficult emotions, go talk to Flowers in room 3302, or even talk to your favorite teacher. They are here to help and aid in your recovery.
And after you feel like you are healing and feeling a bit better, Flowers stresses the importance of moving on, focusing on the future and talking to your friends.