NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) — The life of someone in the military is far from simple.
Taking on the mission to serve our country can take men and women in uniform almost everywhere.
It can make finding consistency difficult, not just for soldiers but their families, particularly for their kids.
Payton Lee is well versed in that lifestyle.
“My dad is in the military. He’s currently in the National Guard but he was Army," Lee said.
"I did experience the moving. I did experience the living on a military base being surrounded by the military family life.”
Lee recalled enjoying her childhood, she felt supported.
That was due in part to attending a Purple Star school.
“Purple Star, I had it back at my old school in Fort Campbell. It was a youth group for middle schoolers at the time," Lee said.
"It was just nice to know you were in a community to be heard and seen.”
The Purple Star is a significant distinction for a school to hold.
It honors the dedication to supporting children of military personnel to make sure they get the educational, mental and emotional support they need.
“Children in military families face a whole different circumstance. A whole different set of challenges when they move and start a new school," James Thompson said.
“Many of them face curriculum overlaps or curriculum gaps. They have different graduation requirements if they move from out of state. They have course placement disruption. Often times they lack the social and emotional support they have finally found at a previous school.”
As a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, James Thompson knows the obstacles military families face firsthand.
However, he also knows the significance of the support from his time teaching at West Jessamine High School, one of the newest recipients of the Purple Star Award.
“This school stresses and provides the support needed for those military connected families to find the groups that will support them," LTC Thompson said.
"To find the peer groups that are going to help them get through the challenging times they face from another move they’ve had to go through.”
It's a new point of pride for students and staff at West Jessamine, joining roughly 100 schools in Kentucky adorned with the Purple Star.
For students like Adelynn Smith, who didn't necessarily need the support growing up, it's comforting to know that help is there if she ever needs it.
“My dad was in the Airforce, my uncle is a colonel in the Marines. Both my grandfathers were in the Army and my cousin is currently in the military," Smith said.
“It brings everybody who feels like nobody understands what they’re going through to understand there are other people around them who knows exactly what they’re going through and they don’t feel like they’re by themselves."
