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Teachers Turn To Meditation To Help Stressed Out Students At Palo Alto High School

PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- Stressed out students at a Silicon Valley high school are chilling out, thanks to meditation.

Palo Alto High School sits right across the street from Stanford University, and the expectations of the kids who attend can be high.

"All they can talk about is how stressed they are, and how like, they're finding it hard to keep up with all their classes because of their huge workload," Palo Alto High School senior Jannat Hashmi said.

To relieve some of the pressures of modern life, a few teachers at the school have turned to transcendental meditation.

"Basically it's a five minute period at the beginning of class where you meditate, or you do whatever you want silently, and that excludes reading or doing homework," Palo Alto High School senior Luca Zaharias said.

Tragically for high school students, stress can be a matter of life and death.  An alarming number of students have used the railroad tracks behind the school as a way to put an end to the pressure of their lives.  The teachers are hoping meditation can offer a healthier perspective.  Students believe the time to relax is helping.

"I think it's just really allowed students to have the time and space to remember to, just relax," Hashmi said.

The school doesn't require students to actually meditate.  They are required to set aside their work and sit quietly for a few minutes.

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