Map High School: Lunis Bair learns to deal with trauma with help of supportive family, school environment

Lunis Bair, 17, is graduating from MAP High School this spring.

That’s a simple sentence, but it’s been a significant and decidedly not simple journey through mental health challenges to earn that diploma.

A traumatic assault by friends when they were in elementary school triggered anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, which Bair held secret for years.

Dad Travis Byrnes said he didn’t know whether the family was dealing with a moody teenager or if something more significant was at play, which began to be obvious. “Lunis was struggling with a lot of anxiety before they came to us with what happened,” said Byrne, who, with partner Daniel Bair, is raising Lunis and their two siblings in Spokane.

The parents literally and figuratively put their arms around their child, and started therapy, medications and whatever else was needed to provide help and support. Fortunately, their child was ready for the help.

“You have to purposely search for the good when everything seems horrible,” Lunis Bair said. “What is being offered doesn’t help if you don’t reach out and take it.”

Bair took all the proactive steps to put themselves on the path of recovery, including changing the kind of music they listened to, learning to conquer the fear of seeing at school the people who traumatized them when they were younger and understanding that sometimes it’s OK not to feel OK.

Because Bair has a hard time regulating emotions, they enrolled at MAP High School, where there are other students dealing with mental health issues, and where they have made new and good friends.

“It’s good to find friends who build you up and support you, and you can do that for them,” they said.

Teacher Celena Breach offers: “(Lunis) is a caring friend who consistently offers support and encouragement to those around them … and through perseverance, has developed confidence and a deeper understanding of their own potential.”

Byrnes’ family owns Diamonds in the Ruff dog training facility on North Monroe Street, and it’s a place of comfort for Bair. They realize that they will need a service dog as they go out into the world, so they will take a gap year after high school to train the dog – probably a borzoi, based on size and allergy issues – with Byrnes’ help at the ready, of course

In addition to continuing drawing, playing video games and attending the annual Rad Con, a sci-fi convention in the Tri-Cities, with the family, they plan to attend Eastern Washington University for pre-veterinary coursework and then apply to veterinary school, with an eye toward attending Washington State University.

Bair would like to become a mixed practice veterinarian. They know they will have their strong support system with them, all along the way.