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Mick Molloy admits shock at Mark Geyer's surprise axing from Triple M radio following 17 years of service Mick Molloy breaks silence about sacking of Mark Geyer Molloy he and other staff are doing it tough without Geyer Says he loved working with the NRL legend at Triple M By JAMES COONEY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA Published: 23:32 GMT, 30 November 2024 | Updated: 23:39 GMT, 30 November 2024 e-mail View comments Mick Molloy has spoken of the sadness that he and his colleagues at Triple M are feeling after popular co-host Mark 'MG' Geyer was suddenly sacked by the broadcaster . Many were shocked by Triple M's decision to part company with the New South Wales State of Origin legend who has been a fan favourite on the station's Mick & MG in the Morning's breakfast show for some time. Despite having been with the broadcaster for 17 years, Geyer and his co-hosts Molloy and Cat Lynch are due to be replaced by a new cast that will include former NRL star-turned-media personality Beau Ryan. It is understood he will debut on the show on January 20, 2025 and will be joined by co-hosts Natarsha Belling and former West Tigers Captain Aaron Woods. The programme will be renamed Triple M Breakfast with Beau, Tarsh & Woodsy and will run from 6am to 9am on weekdays. Geyer's axing was first reported by The Daily Telegraph two weeks ago, but the reasons why he has left the station remain unclear - with the Penrith icon yet to speak out on the matter. Molloy, in his first public comment on the matter, revealed how tough it was without 'MG'. Mick Molloy (pictured) has spoken of the sadness felt by he and other Triple M staff after the shock sacking of footy legend Mark Geyer Mark Geyer was reportedly left 'devastated', according to a former NRL player, after he was dropped from Triple M Sydney's breakfast show 'You'll be aware that MG is not coming back next year and this is very sad for me. It's been tough doing the show for the last week and a half without him,' he told Triple M listeners. 'I've really wanted to talk about his situation, but it's not right because he hasn't spoken about it himself. And out of respect for MG, I think it's his story to tell and he needs to get that out and people need to hear it too. 'What I can say is this, I love the bloke. I have absolutely thoroughly enjoyed doing the show with him for two years, to coming in to work with him for two years. He makes me laugh. He's one of the most unique men I've ever met in my life. 'There's many people who are sad here (at Triple M) that he's not going to be back next year. I can't tell you how much I love him and I really hope we can maintain our friendship for many years to come. He is one of the great men I've ever met and I really wish him all the best.' Geyer, who was capped three times for Australia and helped Penrith to their first premiership win in 1991, retired from professional footy in 2000. He would go on to pursue a career in media having written extensively for newspapers, before taking up roles with Triple M and Fox Footy. Molloy said he hopes Geyer will continue doing radio. 'The audience loves him,' he said. Molloy says he loved working with Geyer and he hopes that he stays in radio Molloy said he hopes he can maintain his friendship with 'MG' for many years to come 'He's well-loved here at Triple M (and) I hope we hear him back on the airwaves very soon, and I hope it's on Triple M (because) he's an absolute cracker.' The reasons why Geyer left the station remain unclear - with the former Kangaroos star yet to speak out on the matter. But according to former Penrith star Lou Zivanovic, who caught up with the 56-year-old for lunch recently, Geyer has been left 'devastated' by the sudden call after he had been 'blindsided' by the channel. 'MG [Mark Geyer] is one of the most loyal people you could meet and Triple M has shown him zero loyalty in return,' Zivanovic told Yahoo Sport Australia. 'He was blindsided by the decision and is quite understandably devastated. Decisions are made in business every day but there's a right way and wrong way to go about things. They've totally screwed him, without warning, after 17 years of loyal service. It doesn’t sit right with me and it doesn’t sit right with a lot of people. 'He's still coming to terms with it all, but he's a strong man,' Zivanovic added. 'MG showed during his footy career that you get knocked down and you get up again, and that’s the way he's approaching this. With the help and support of family and friends, he will bounce back from this. One door closes, another one opens.' NRL New South Wales Share or comment on this article: Mick Molloy admits shock at Mark Geyer's surprise axing from Triple M radio following 17 years of service e-mail Add commentComcast, the parent company of NBC and its affiliated properties, recently announced plans to spin off its cable television networks, including CNBC and MSNBC, into a new company. Following this news, Elon Musk, owner of X, shared a meme online fueling speculation he might purchase MSNBC if it becomes available. A video of Rachel Maddow, one of MSNBC’s leading personalities, went viral on social media , appearing to show her reaction to Musk’s memes about buying MSNBC. The clip appears to show Maddow on air during a breaking news segment with a banner on screen reading: “BREAKING NEWS ELON MUSK POSTS DANGEROUS MEME.” Maddow becomes visibly upset, then requests a graphic to be displayed and the screen cuts to an explicit meme about Musk's buying MSNBC. The video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Google Trends data shows a spike in searches for terms including “Elon Musk meme,” “Rachel Maddow crying,” and “Rachel Maddow Elon Musk.” People in the comments on the video expressed surprise that Maddow would act like that on air. Is the video of an emotional Rachel Maddow during a news segment about speculation that Elon Musk could MSNBC real? No, the video is not real. It was created using a real video of Maddow from 2018 and was edited to include fake onscreen graphics and a meme about Musk. The viral video appearing to show Maddow upset on air in response to social media posts depicting the potential sale of MSNBC to Elon Musk is fake. It was created using a real clip from “The Rachel Maddow Show’s” June 19, 2018 episode that was then edited to include graphics and images to make it appear like she is reacting to a story about Musk. An MSNBC network spokesperson told VERIFY the video “has been manipulated and is fake.” Using InVid, a video forensics tool, VERIFY analyzed the video and conducted a reverse image search, which led us to clips of Maddow’s original 2018 news segment about immigration policy. When comparing the edited video with the original clip from 2018, it was clear Maddow was making the same gestures, wearing the same outfit and the background is identical. A thumbnail promoting MSNBC’s live coverage from the southern border also appears in the bottom corner of both versions. In the original segment, Maddow got emotional while reading an Associated Press report about children separated at the southern border and placed in “tender age” shelters. After her show aired, Maddow apologized on social media for becoming emotional during the broadcast. There have been no verified reports that Musk is considering purchasing MSNBC or that the network would be sold as part of Comcast’s restructuring. Other posts from Musk included retweets of articles from satirical websites. None of Maddow’s recent broadcasts contain this fake news segment.WASHINGTON — Parents whose kids died allegedly because of social media content are pushing lawmakers to require tech companies to alter practices to minimize such harms. Attorneys general in more than half of U.S. states support the same legislation, saying “many social media platforms target minors, resulting in a national youth mental health catastrophe.” But with few days left in the current session, House leadership hasn’t set a floor vote for a measure approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in September. The bill’s companion in the Senate passed on a 91-3 vote in July. “We are trying to get it done,” Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said in a recent hallway interview in the Capitol. “I’m working like heck to get it done.” Bilirakis is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce, whose jurisdiction includes data privacy, security and consumer protection. Bilirakis said he had spoken with the House Republican leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson, about bringing the measure to a vote. “I haven’t given up at all,” Bilirakis said. “I think we have a shot.” A spokesman for Johnson’s office did not respond to questions about the bill. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, one of the lawmakers seeking the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the new Congress, said he had not discussed the bill with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee chair who’s retiring. Latta said in a brief interview that he wasn’t aware of whether the schedule will include the bill. Social media companies’ aversion to the legislation is no secret. Tech industry trade groups — including NetChoice, a group that represents top tech platforms including Google LLC, Meta Platforms Inc. and Snap Inc. — have said that the measure is anti-constitutional because it curbs free speech. Meta, for example, favors requiring app stores to get parents’ consent if kids under 16 want to download certain social media apps. A spokesman said that would be better than the proposals being considered in Congress, even with the House version stripping out some Senate bill provisions through a substitute amendment by Bilirakis. The first provision removed would have required tech companies to exercise a “reasonable care in the creation and implementation of any design feature to prevent and mitigate” harms to minors, including mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, eating disorders, substance use disorders and suicidal behaviors. The second provision would have required tech companies to design their products and services to mitigate “patterns of use that indicate or encourage compulsive usage by minors.” During the committee vote, several Democratic lawmakers lamented that Bilirakis’ amendment was released a day before the markup, leaving them without time to propose changes. The amendment was approved by a voice vote. Pleas from parents Among the parents pushing for passage is a state legislator touched by the issue. “I’m tired of seeing kids die daily while we have Congress playing politics,” said Brandon Guffey, a Republican state representative from South Carolina. “I’m watching money go around. I’m watching misinformation on the kids online safety bill.” Guffey, speaking at an event organized last week by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said his 17-year old son Gavin committed suicide in July 2022 after becoming a victim of online sexual extortion on Instagram, a platform owned by Meta. Parents and their lawyers at the event urged Congress to protect kids online. A group of 31 state attorneys general, led by Tennessee’s Jonathan Skrmetti, wrote to the House and Senate leaders on Nov. 18 pressing them to pass the measure. Other groups, such as kids safety advocate Design It For Us, have pushed House Republicans to beef up the provisions in the bill. “If Congress fails to pass KOSA this year, it will jeopardize the lives of more young people,” Zamaan Qureshi, co-chair of Design It For Us, said in a text message. “We can’t wait any longer.” The measure is about “design, not content,” said Laura Marquez-Garrett, an attorney at the Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle. The group represents 3,600 families from all 50 states who have lost a loved one to social media harms, she said. Speaking at the same event as Guffey, Marquez-Garrett said that “there were changes made and those concerns were resolved,” including removing any penalties on platforms for hosting content. In the absence of guardrails, when kids search for inspirational quotes online, for example, social media platforms serve up “extreme videos,” she said. A 16-year old boy who searched online for inspirational quotes “after his first heartbreak got thousands of ‘no one will ever love you’ and suicide-promoting videos,” and the boy committed suicide, Marquez-Garrett said.
Nokia Corporation: Repurchase of own shares on 04.12.2024
Trump’s 2nd term agenda alarms critics as he embraces hardline policies from ‘Project 2025’BRKH, ARCH, B URGENT: The M&A Class Action Firm Encourages $hareholders to Act Before the Vote
Zilinskas scores 32 as IU Indianapolis downs Alabama A&M 88-83(BPT) - Tech gifts are consistently some of the most popular presents to give and receive during the holidays. In fact, according to the annual Consumer Technology Holiday Purchase Patterns report , a record 233 million U.S. adults (89%) will buy tech products during the 2024 holiday season. But with so many devices out there, it can be hard to decide on the perfect option for the loved one on your list. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
Stressing the need for elections as soon as possible, BNP's acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, has said that the country cannot move forward with the "broken system" put in place by the Awami League regime. "The more we delay democratic elections taking place in Bangladesh, the more the broken systems instilled by the Awami League for their own gains will be exacerbated," Tarique wrote on his verified Facebook page last night. "We cannot move forward in building a better Bangladesh when society-wide issues in public healthcare, education, difficulties faced by farmers, challenges for businesses, political biases in the judiciary and civil service exist." Tarique said that only an elected government, chosen by the people through free and fair voting, can begin rebuilding the nation. "The public's choice of representatives will be respected, and the representatives in turn must serve the public. Both sides must be involved actively in governance so that Bangladesh can ensure equality, inclusivity, and development for all," he wrote.
Dr Troy Baisden. Photo: Waikato University By Pretoria Gordon and Mary Argue of RNZ Changes to a critical science fund are short-sighted and will have negative effects on universities' ability to carry out research in humanities and social sciences, a senior academic at Victoria University says. But a business group said the changes to the Marsden Fund were the right move - and would boost productivity, living standards and economic growth. Science, Innovation and Technology minister Judith Collins on Wednesday announced changes to the fund, which is administered by the Royal Society and provides grants for scientific research. Collins said humanities and social sciences would no longer be supported, and the independent panels that made funding decisions would be disbanded by next year, as part of a "more strategic approach to science funding across the board". Every application for funding must now describe its potential to generate economic, environmental, or health benefits for New Zealand, and 50 percent of grants from the Marsden Fund each year must have the potential for economic benefit. Association of Scientists co-president Dr Troy Baisden told RNZ's Morning Report programme today the move was a "very dangerous problem" that all scientists were worried about. "This is just ill-informed. "If we undermine the foundation of everything that we do, the things that everyone wants from science fall down with the foundations, and this is a change that undermines the norms that underlie these sort of fundamental research systems throughout the world." Baisden said New Zealand had an odd system for funding research and the amounts awarded were only enough to get started, not completely fund things. "This government has a mandate to rebuild the economy and it is critical that we spend taxpayers money on research that can generate real benefit to New Zealand," the minister told RNZ. "It is also important to note that only 50 percent of funding needs to show economic benefit, the Marsden Fund will continue to support blue-skies research that advances new ideas, innovation and creativity and where the benefit may not be immediately apparent." Professor Nic Rawlence. Photo: supplied Morning Report "They do vitally important research we think." Many of the projects were very collaborative, he said. He pointed to work on the New Zealand wars, or investigating the barriers to vaccine uptake, or climate mitigation. "The archaeology example, we are looking at how Māori and Pakeha lived in New Zealand, how their societies functioned and if we don't learn from history were doomed to repeat it, which will have big economic impacts." Without the Marsden Fund there were no other funding options, Rawlence said. "The danger here is with humanities and social sciences funding being scrapped... that could result in a brain drain with people going overseas." In 2024, the amount of Marsden funding available was approximately $77.7 million. The Royal Society, which has administered investment of the Marsden Fund on behalf of the New Zealand Government for 30 years, said it would be assessing the broader implications of these changes. President Dame Jane Harding said it would continue to work to support the social sciences and humanities through a range of mechanisms in addition to funding. "Increasingly it is understood that research needed to generate benefits for our country will need to be interdisciplinary, integrating knowledge from experts in the social sciences and humanities with science, engineering, and technology. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Margaret Hyland. Photo: supplied Surprise and concern An email sent to all Victoria University staff from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Margaret Hyland said it had taken the whole sector by surprise. "We have fundamental concerns about the changes, which we believe are short-sighted and will have significant negative effects on all universities' ability to carry out valuable and critical research in humanities and social sciences." She said all universities in New Zealand were united in their condemnation of the changes. "We know that humanities and social sciences research is hugely valuable to us as a university, and necessary for the well-being of society in general. "We'll be doing everything in our power to ensure such valuable research is supported." Hyland told RNZ she stood by her statement. "It was our response to learning about the changes and we wanted our people to know of our level of concern and unwavering support for our researchers." A statement from Universities New Zealand said the announcement was very concerning. While investment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines were important for shorter-term economic benefit, it said, longer-term transformation of innovation and the lifting of productivity required social and culture change also. "We know that government fu nding is tight, and we know that government has to be able to defend where taxpayer money is going. But the answer is not to cut out the humanities and social sciences from the Marsden Fund." 'The right move' Catherine Beard. Photo: supplied BusinessNZ welcomed the change, with advocacy director Catherine Beard calling it "the right move". "New Zealand continues to languish in the productivity space. It's a problem that can be partly solved through innovation. "Directing the Marsden Fund to focus more narrowly on research that will help to support high-tech, high-productivity, high-value businesses and jobs is the right move." New Zealand's research and development expenditure is growing, but is still well behind the OECD average, Beard said. "Setting clear expectations by funding research that can boost New Zealand's economy and living standards is a welcome step toward a better tomorrow." Labour's research, science and innovation spokesperson Dr Deborah Russell said New Zealand only spent half the OECD average for science, research, and development. "It's time the government saw research as a priority. "We want to keep talented people here, who contribute to the growth of New Zealand's knowledge base and economy. These cuts leave academics and researchers with fewer options, ... making them more likely to join the thousands of people leaving the country to pursue opportunities elsewhere. "Critical thinkers are essential to advancing our economy, protecting our environment, and building our cultural identity." However, the ACT Party said the changes would help the funding deliver long-term benefits for New Zealanders. "Politicians shouldn't decide which specific research projects are funded, but we have a duty to ensure taxpayer money is focused on research that delivers tangible benefits for society and the economy," science, innovation, and technology spokesperson Dr Parmjeet Parmar said. Some projects were hard to justify to taxpayers who were struggling to afford the basics, she said. "Every dollar spent on these grants is a dollar that is not supporting research in the hard sciences, or for that matter, life-saving medicines, essential infrastructure, or tax relief for struggling households."COLUMBUS, Ohio — A fight broke out at midfield after Michigan stunned No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday as Wolverines players attempted to plant their flag and were met by Buckeyes who confronted them. Police had to use pepper spray to break up the players, who threw punches and shoves in the melee that overshadowed the rivalry game. Ohio State police said in a statement “multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray.” Ohio State police will investigate the fight, according to the statement. After the Ohio State players confronted their bitter rivals at midfield, defensive end Jack Sawyer grabbed the top of the Wolverines’ flag and ripped it off the pole as the brawl moved toward the Michigan bench. Eventually, police officers rushed into the ugly scene. Ohio State coach Ryan Day said he understood the actions of his players. “There are some prideful guys on our team who weren’t going to sit back and let that happen,” Day said. The two Ohio State players made available after the game brushed off questions about it. Michigan running back Kalel Mullings, who rushed for 116 yards and a touchdown, didn’t like how the Buckeyes players involved themselves in the Wolverines’ postgame celebration. He called it “classless.” “For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game,” he said in an on-field interview with Fox Sports. “It’s just bad for the sport, bad for college football. But at the end of the day, you know some people got to — they got to learn how to lose, man. ... We had 60 minutes, we had four quarters, to do all that fighting.” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said everybody needs to do better. “So much emotions on both sides,” he said. “Rivalry games get heated, especially this one. It’s the biggest one in the country, so we got to handle that better.”Winston's performance in snowy win over Steelers adds new layer to Browns' quarterback conundrum
As a matter of routine last spring, University of Montana graduate student Erin Dozhier would settle into their home office on the north end of Missoula and prepare for a barrage of questions about houseplants and parrots. The queries came from public school kids hundreds of miles away, their worlds temporarily connected to Dozhier’s through a version of Zoom often utilized by therapists for virtual counseling. Usually, Dozhier would start with their most tried-and-true strategy for building rapport with young clients. “Number one, if you want students to talk to you, ask them about their pets or show them your pet,” said Dozhier, whose parrot Alfie often made appearances in such sessions. Dozhier is one of a growing number of students from UM’s social work, school counseling and mental health counseling programs who have delivered such services for K-12 children in Montana’s far-flung rural districts. What began as an experimental effort to address the mental health side of school safety has, over the past five years, evolved into a fixture both for the university’s Safe Schools Center and for the small schools it serves. Dubbed VAST — short for Virtually Assisted School Teams — the program now boasts six grad students and 22 participating districts stretching from the Bitterroot Valley to the North Dakota border. The free counseling services VAST has made available to young Montanans highlight a growing focus among leaders across the state’s education continuum on student mental health. According to Montana’s latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 43% of responding high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row, and more than a quarter had seriously considered suicide — the highest annual rate since 1991. Educators often point to rising rates of youth anxiety and depression as a contributor to the steady decline in statewide academic performance, and for schools large and small, financial and hiring difficulties frequently stand in the way of providing robust mental health resources. Even outside the K-12 system, such support for students in Montana’s more rural communities may be dozens if not hundreds of miles away. RELATED COVERAGE These Native tribes are working with schools to boost attendance Native American students miss school at higher rates. It only got worse during the pandemic Tensions rise as teachers remain on the picket line in 3 Massachusetts communities For program leader Tammy Tolleson Knee, who serves as school support liaison for UM’s Safe Schools Center, the issues VAST was crafted to address have only become more pressing since the pandemic and speak to social and societal forces at work well beyond a school’s hallways. She told MTFP that as of this week, 53 K-12 students in Montana have been referred to the program for one-on-one counseling, with more than a dozen more referrals expected. “One of the great hardships for families is just what’s happening with the economy,” Tolleson Knee said. “And when families are stressed, kids become stressed.” Some districts, including in the northeast Montana town of Bainville, have been relying on VAST for years to meet the needs of their most vulnerable students. Other districts such as the Broadus Public Schools have only recently joined the program but are already reporting an impact. Broadus school counselor Dori Phillips told Montana Free Press that in the two months since the district formalized its participation, she’s already referred six students to one-on-one tele-counseling through VAST. “I don’t know where I would be without the help with those particular kiddos,” Phillips said. When Dan Lee first envisioned the VAST program in 2019, he saw tele-counseling as the preventative prong in a larger effort to address student safety. As then-head of UM’s Safe Schools Center , Lee heard time and again from educators that shortages of mental health professionals in rural communities posed a significant hurdle to getting children the help they needed before their personal struggles reached a critical level. The challenge, Lee told MTFP, was in developing an initiative that didn’t reinforce misconceptions — tied to school shootings — about mental health as a public safety concern. “One of the concerns we had was we can’t criminalize mental health,” said Lee, now the dean of UM’s College of Education, which houses the campus’ various counseling programs as well as the Safe Schools Center. “We can’t say if you are depressed, you are a threat. You can’t do that. When you’re depressed, it doesn’t mean you’re a threat to anybody. So we didn’t like the idea of classifying mental illness as a threat to schools because it’s not.” VAST, which kicked off during the 2020-21 academic year with two participating schools, fit neatly into a collection of services Lee and his cohorts developed for Montana schools, providing a compassion-centric therapeutic tool to complement the center’s more site-specific threat assessments, staff training and its 24/7 school safety hotline. At the same time, Lee said, the initiative began giving UM students greater access to the clinical hours needed to obtain their degrees and licenses, hours that can be difficult to get. In the years since, VAST has increasingly filled a void in rural communities with participating schools. Tolleson Knee recalled the story of one student who had previously received counseling in a community an hour away from home, until the family’s finances could no longer sustain the costs of travel and treatment. Her colleague, Safe Schools Center Director Emily Sallee, added that even if families are able to sustain private mental health services, outside professionals may not be effective at coordinating with in-school staff. By comparison, VAST relies on teachers and school counselors — the latter a state-mandated position in public schools — to coordinate with UM-side practitioners and keep them informed about any developments in a student’s life that may go unseen or unacknowledged in a tele-counseling session. “There’s this huge wraparound piece that’s often missing when kids are accessing counseling outside of schools,” Sallee said, “and it’s a huge part of how all these people can be supporting this kiddo, not just the counselor.” For Deborah Ith, the team-centered aspect of the program has been an important facet of her VAST experience this fall. A doctoral student in UM’s school psychology program, Ith currently has three teenage students in rural schools that she meets with remotely at least once a week via a paid, HIPAA-compliant version of Zoom. Their struggles have primarily been interpersonal ones, Ith said, and on a couple of occasions have risen to the level that Ith has reached out to the school counselor and parents to develop a group plan of support. “Sometimes that means trying to support parents because that’s really scary,” Ith continued. “When you’re a parent and you have somebody call you up and be like, ‘Hey, this came up, this is going on, you need to know about it, this is what we talked about as a way to support and this is what you can do to support them,’ that’s really hard to hear sometimes.” Even as VAST participants continue to provide such day-to-day services for a growing collection of rural schools, Tolleson Knee is identifying opportunities to expand the program’s offerings even further. She told MTFP that starting this spring, the Safe Schools Center plans to try out a hybrid version of VAST in one Bitterroot Valley school that will include a monthly in-person counseling session for students on top of three monthly tele-counseling sessions. The University of Montana isn’t alone in recognizing the challenges rural schools face in providing adequate mental health support for their students. The nonprofit Montana Small Schools Alliance has developed its own 24/7 crisis support app , which mental health resources director Cindy Fouhy said has so far been accessed by more than 20,000 students across the state. In addition, the alliance — in partnership with the Montana Professional Learning Collaborative — has developed a free tele-counseling model of its own. Like VAST, the focus is primarily on Montana’s smallest and most resource-starved schools where dedicated one-on-one intervention simply isn’t available. “You go to these small schools and they may not even have a certified counselor,” Fouhy said. “If they do, he or she is also teaching classes and doing 500 other things.” The factors that make mental health support in rural communities so difficult can also fuel the very stressors that necessitate such support in the first place. Consider Broadus, a town of fewer than 500 people anchored to the vast prairie of southeastern Montana. The local K-12 school boasts a student population of roughly 225, some of whom travel up to 70 miles one way to attend Power River County’s sole high school. According to data from the Office of Public Instruction, more than a third of the student population is classified as economically disadvantaged. Politics, drought, alcohol use — there are a lot of issues influencing local families, said Broadus school counselor Dori Phillips, and those pressures “trickle to our students.” Professional help is more than 80 miles away in every direction. Stress and geographic isolation are exacerbated by a persistent social stigma around seeking mental health treatment, one that Phillips has struggled, family by individual family, to overcome. “Getting our families to commit to taking their kids for help is almost impossible in many cases,” Phillips said. “I have very few students on my caseload. I think there’s three total that actually travel out of town to get help.” Broadus Public Schools used to offer more robust mental health services for students through the state-sponsored Comprehensive School and Community Treatment program, or CSCT. But the district’s access dried up about two years ago following legislative changes to how services were administered , and the availability of a part-time school psychologist has largely served during emergencies or as a backup on days when Phillips isn’t working. So when Phillips heard of VAST in a statewide association email, she instantly saw the prospect of free, in-school tele-counseling as a carrot for local families. “I can work with kids on friendship issues, I can help kids if they’re having trouble managing homework or learning organizational skills, those types of things,” said Phillips, whose school counseling license is distinct from the licenses granted to clinical therapists. “But when you have a family who deals with the loss of a parent or a caregiver, you have a family who goes through even a nasty divorce or a child who has a lot of trauma from their early years, those are things that they really need a private counselor for. Someone who’s licensed and knows how to work with kids.” In just two months, the number of Broadus students receiving tele-counseling services through VAST has grown to six, and Phillips said she’s working to connect three more students with the program. A few hundred miles to the north, Bainville school counselor Amy Iversen said the number of students she’s referred to VAST has grown from two students in 2022 to seven last school year. She described the ag-and-oil community as similarly small, with 172 students across all grades, and similarly isolated, with the closest larger population center lying across the state line in Williston, North Dakota. For Iversen, UM’s program came along at a critical time for several students who showed signs of behavioral issues or depression and whose families lacked the resources for private counseling. “They can come in and talk to me about it, but then you know what? They’re going to see me again in class in two days and they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, crap, is she going to say something?’” Iversen said. “They probably don’t want me to know all their secrets. I’ve got kids in the school, some of them are friends with my own kids. It’s awkward for them, so when you’re in a small school, it helps with that confidentiality.” In some cases, parents have commented to Iversen on a noticeable difference in their child’s confidence, self-esteem or coping skills as a result of ongoing therapy. And while school-based counseling has its limits — like the services provided by traditional school counselors , VAST is not offered during the summer break — Iversen hopes the mental health skills students glean during the school year can see them through the off months. “That’s better than not getting anything,” Iversen said. Dozhier, the UM grad student, didn’t have to look much farther than their own childhood in a small Oregon timber town to understand the issues facing the young Montana clients they counseled last spring. Kids are smarter and more observant than people think, Dozhier said, which means when pressures like joblessness, food insecurity or substance abuse weigh on a household, children pick up on it. They may act out or isolate themselves, sometimes without knowing why, and the last thing such a student can focus on is learning. “Their thinking brains are off,” Dozhier said. Dozhier’s parrot Alfie may help break the ice, but helping a child navigate issues they may not fully understand requires more than just talking about pets and plants. In sessions with VAST, Dozhier said they primarily utilize a style of counseling called play therapy, allowing a student to play freely with whatever toys they choose. Their actions may give the counselor some subtle insight into what’s going on in their lives, Dozhier said. Fighting between toys could, for example, be indicative of difficult relationships with siblings or other family members and help guide a counselor’s questions. “Even though it looks like play, we find that pertinent themes come up in play, even without specifically saying, ‘Hey, how’s your relationship with your brother?’” Dozhier said. “It’s almost like watching a theater play that doesn’t have a lot of words and kind of using that to draw conclusions.” Ith’s work with older students this fall has also underscored the added stress coming to age in a smaller community can place on a 21st-century teen. She acknowledges that the rural nature of the schools she serves through VAST can help reinforce a sense of support, giving some students an awareness that others around them recognize the experiences they’re going through. But it’s a “double-edged sword,” she said, one that can make it difficult to find new peer groups or move past incidents of bullying. At the Montana Small Schools Alliance, Fouhy notes that social media and technology can exacerbate such issues in ways older generations may not fully understand. “The kids can’t get away from stressors,” Fouhy said. “In the 80s, kids could go home and if they had to fight at school, they wouldn’t have to worry about it again ’til Monday. But now it just goes on and on, and the conflict and the stress that’s just in their pocket is significant.” Remote delivery of the one-on-one services that can help students process such situations does pose challenges, and leaders at VAST are quick to note that the program isn’t a solution for budgetary shortfalls or hiring challenges. Dozhier and Ith both credit the effectiveness of their work to individuals in the communities they’ve served — school counselors, teachers, parents. Tele-counseling initiatives haven’t sought to replace those voices but rather to create oases in Montana’s rural desert of outside mental health services, and Tolleson Knee has heard from past participants that the anonymity of therapy was a key motivator. “When you do live in those small communities, it’s just so hard to be objective,” Tolleson Knee said. “I heard students and family saying it was so nice to know we weren’t going to like have this intense session where we’re talking about really personal stuff and then run into (the counselor) in the grocery store.” The experience of meeting such a need fits well with Dozhier’s long-term professional goal of returning to rural Oregon as a counselor, and they are slated to return to the VAST cohort of practitioners-in-training this spring as it branches into in-person service. But while the program is great at doing what it’s doing, Dozhier recognizes even private counseling has its limits. A few sessions with a therapist won’t erase the issues that arise for a child when, say, a parent is overworked, stretched thin and struggling just to put food on the table. When it comes to improving mental health, Dozhier said, the challenge is far more systematic than one school, one university or one counselor can handle alone. “The answer to all of this kid’s woes is maybe not counseling for a year,” Dozhier said. “The answer maybe to so many of these woes would be to reduce stress on the family, and that’s something that our systems aren’t set up to do.” ___ This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.