Some Tompkins High School students have begun an adolescent mental health support group, and they are reaching out to the community to promote their cause.

Soha Jashwant, who this fall will be a senior, is the founder of Swear 2 Care. She said today’s adolescents face pressures that social media accelerates, such as FOMO (for fear of missing out), body insecurity and cyberbullying.

In an essay she wrote on the group’s website, she said academic pressures have risen, “with kids bred like racehorses to breeze through standardized tests from a very young age. Not to mention having to walk around shards of glass when navigating the social politics of high school groupism.”

Jashwant wrote that adolescents are, in a way, having to grow up with these factors in play in addition to what she called the “simple truth that we haven’t even figured out who we really are spells disaster for our minds.”

Jashwant said in an interview that she and her fellow students—Regina Wu, Jiajun Chen and Kailin Huang—have seen these issues and how it affected others, both at Tompkins and at other schools. They wanted to do something to help. They reached out to students at other schools to learn what was being done and what might be done.

“If you know you have an army of support, that makes things 100% easier,” Jashwant said.

Jashwant and her fellow students were at the June 23 Coffee with the Mayors event to discuss their Swear 2 Care group and its activities. This fall, Wu will be a senior. Chen will be a junior, and Huang will be a sophomore.

Jashwant said the group started to come together in January and has been active for about a month.

She said the group has received over 400 pledges made through its website and social media in the last month. Building such a support group makes it easier for someone to face the pressures.

“We felt it was imperative to bring up this issue, especially now,” Jashwant said. “We’re trying to build a community a support.”

For more information, visit the website swear2care.com.