School District 60 to host parenting seminars on children’s anxiety and wellbeing

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — School District 60 will be hosting seminars to help parents with concerns regarding issues affecting their children. 

The District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) will be hosting three separate seminars in April and May, according to a Foundry Fort St. John Facebook post.

Athena Andritz, president of the School District 60 Parent Advisory Council, says the school district has been hearing lots of worry from parents.

“We’ve been hearing from a lot of parents that there are concerns regarding kids and anxiety issues with bullying and social media and how they can better help their children,” said Andritz. 

“This is going to be a way to better understand what’s driving our child’s reactions and what we can do as parents to help reduce power struggles and build a stronger connection with our kids to hopefully reduce a lot of these anxiety issues and be able to address bullying and other issues kids may be having at school.”

Andritz said she has been working on these seminars since she brought it forward to the DPAC in October. 

According to Andritz, recent events showed the need for the seminars, such as the deaths of two teenagers over the 2025-26 Christmas break and the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge. 

“It just reinforced how important having this seminar is for our community.”

Andritz hopes the seminars will help parents learn different tools to navigate issues their children are facing. 

Michelle Antoniak, a registered clinical counsellor and owner of Guts and Grits Counselling, will be speaking at the seminars.

As a mother of three, Antoniak said it’s important to provide a safe space for parents to come and learn about ways to help their children deal with issues they are experiencing. 

Antoniak said she is happy to see the school district hosting seminars like this.

“I’m really grateful that the school district is doing this,” said Antoniak. “We’ve had a really tough year in our community, and this is a response to that.” 

Three different seminars will be hosted, depending on age groups:

• Primary school age (kindergarten to grade 6): Thursday, April 23rd at 6 p.m. 
• Middle school age (grade 7 to 9): Thursday, April 30th, 2026 at 6 p.m.
• High school age (grade 10 to 12): Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 at 6 p.m. 

All seminars will be hosted at Anne Roberts Young Elementary School at 8408 112th Avenue, Fort St. John. 

The seminars are free to attend without registering. Childcare will be provided for parents in attendance. 

Anyone who has questions about the seminars can reach out to the DPAC by emailing sd60dpac@gmail.com.