I can't stress this enough

Stress is a frenemy in day-to-day high school life. Frenemy, in that stress is such a big part of our routine that to call it merely an acquaintance would seem insulting. Some high schools, however, are going the extra mile to try to alleviate some of the stress in their students’ lives.

Students at Prospect High School in Chicago are being treated to the waggling tail of Junie, a therapy dog. Other high schools offer yoga classes, access to wellness rooms (where a student can get a massage), or extra time between classes to serve as a sort of recess, the Associated Press reports.

Finally! People are noticing what students have known for a long time: High school isn’t as easy as it used to be. Maybe parents will stop using the “I’ve been at work all day, and you were just at school, you take out the trash” guilt trip. Kudos to the high schools acknowledging and helping to reduce stress, and to those who recognize that at 15, heck even at 18, we are still children, despite how much we argue against it. - RACHEL MOWAT, Hillsborough High

Speaking of stress . . .

High school is already stressful enough without juniors having to wait for months to find out whether their ACT or SAT scores were high enough to qualify them for graduation. Thanks to the Florida Department of Education, however, the wait now won’t be so long. Instead of waiting until fall, new education commissioner Tony Bennett pledged a speedy turnaround for the release of scores that tie the two national exams to what is considered a passing grade on the FCAT 2.0 reading test. He made good on that pledge last week, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The new equivalent to a passing FCAT is 19 on the ACT and 430 on the SAT.

Say it on a shirt

Attention guys with girlfriends who love sci-fi: You can give the gift of geek chic this Valentine’s Day. Her Universe, a clothing line by Ashley Eckstein who is the voice of Anakin Skywalker’s Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano in the Cartoon Network series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, just released three T-shirts that feature a romantic twist to classic quotes from Doctor Who, Star Trek and Star Wars. With sayings such as “You are the Doctor to my Companion,” “You are the Captain to my Starship” and “You are the Light to my Saber,” you can’t go wrong choosing these for the geek girl in your life. Hurry, heruniverse.com says a guaranteed delivery by Feb. 14 may be tough, but if the force is with you, shoot, anything can happen. - LILLIAN SKYE NOBLE, St. Petersburg Collegiate High