Mental Health in Schools Essay Example

Schools overlook their students' mental health, students that struggle with mental health sometimes struggle with being able to learn and focus in school. With the lack of education about mental health students could think that they are not normal and struggle with being confident in themselves; statistics and studies show that 18.8% of teenagers in public schools all across America have attempted or seriously thought about suicide. Public high schools are not properly equipped with the resources and staff to help students with their mental health and preventing suicide. 

One of America's only resources for mental health in schools is the guidance counselors and there are not enough counselors compared to the amount of students. For instance, a public highschool with 3000 students and 3 guidance counselors, each counselor would be giving 1000 students resources. On top of that, they have to be able to notice the changes in their students' actions and behaviors. “In the worst case scenario, a student on the brink of suicide or another mental health disorder can be denied a counselling session because their counselor was too busy with other students” (O'Connor). The lack of counselors in the school system is one of the main reasons students have no safe person or space to talk about their feelings. “Counselors are very grateful for their jobs and work very hard, but sometimes it feels like a band-aid on an arterial wound,”says one source (JONES). The amount of school shootings that occur around the United States severely affects students' mental health, and when they have no support system at home the only place they know to go is their school.  When schools do not have enough counselors it could potentially lead to more risk for suicide, feeling worthless and alone.  For example, in an impoverished highschool with only one counselor all of these students would only be able to see that counselor maybe once a month. Counselors also have very many other tasks they do everyday, like making schedules, graduation support, etc. Adding a school therapist or mental health resource room for students could potentially help this problem. Students need a safe space or person that they can go to when they need support. Teachers all across the country need to have the proper resources and training to be able to notice changes in students behavior and empathy. Additionally more counselors could help with the awareness of the problem. 

Furthermore, students should be able to have access to mental health days to take a mental break or go to therapy. Education systems in America frown upon this as it's considered “not necessary” with our 2020 pandemic occurring staff believing that these students have had enough days off and are falling behind with their graduation path. “A 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the proportion of mental health-related emergency department visits for children aged 5–11 and 12–17 increased by about 24% and 31%, respectively, compared to 2019 (Blackmer and Shenker)”. Along with the pandemic teenagers had to stay home and quarantine away from their friends and couldn’t travel, with this occurring in early 2020 and is still currently happening, students are still struggling with feeling alone and having no support system at home and at school. When your mind is constantly going it could lead to exhaustion which could potentially alter your thinking skills and make you overall more depressed and could induce self harm. Allowing mental health days in all middle/high schools  could help prevent the body and mind from self harm with the stress and exhaustion that occurs from school. Your mind and body need a break from staying up until 3am working on homework or a big assignment due the next school day. When your mind and body gets exhausted you tend to have physical pain as well. “Some public schools have proposed that high schoolers should be allowed to take up to five mental health days off per semester to improve academic performance.” (“Should High Schoolers Have Mental Health Days in School? - Solstice RTC”). Allowing mental health days could show significant improvement in motivation and the students overall health. When students do take their allowed mental health days they could come back to school with more motivation and overall become a better student because they aren’t so stressed out about their big exam anymore and it gives them an opportunity to take a break. 

Teaching mental health in schools could bring awareness to other students and staff about the concerns and struggles that their classmates/students are battling with. Allowing mental health lessons to be taught in schools allows teachers to be able to recognize the signs of depression and anxiety. Without being taught the realities of mental health difficulties, children won’t understand the impact that ‘banter’ (whether it be insults, bullying or spreading of lies and rumors) could have. The only way this will change is if we educate them, just like physical health is taught; (Hughes). Schools all around America have health classes to teach signs of drug use, eating healthy, and staying fit but no mental health. Students could struggle majorly understanding why their thoughts and why they feel different from their friends and family and having no realization that they are struggling with mental health because they have never been taught about it. Students with undiagnosed anxiety tend to get extremely stressed out and overwhelmed on exams. With that being said the stress from the exam on top of everything else going on in their life could cause them to fail the exam as well as not understand why they failed after studying for hours. Furthermore, “Nervousness and anxiety are perfectly normal reactions to stress. For some people, this fear can become so intense that it interferes with their ability to perform well on a test” (“The Causes of Test Anxiety and Academic Stress”).

Some parents and faculty could argue that students use their mental health as an excuse for being lazy. Students that struggle with mental health severely have serious difficulties with learning and being able to manage their anxiety. When teachers say that their students are using their mental health as an excuse, it could lead to more anxiety when asking for an extension on a paper or an exam. Parents and teachers that don't struggle with mental health dismiss when their student/child comes to them with a concern. Lack of education on the topic can lead to this, not allowing mental health days as an excuse could be more harmful than letting your child struggle and not understand why in class.  “There's the danger that we take too much care and when they hit the real world that same kind of support isn't there," says David Cozzens, dean of students and associate vice president of student affairs at the University of Wyoming in Laramie (Petersen). When teachers say it's an excuse just to miss school and not do their work it can end up causing more anxiety on the student and make them not wanna come at all and potentially drop out of school completely. 

Overall, mental health is one of the biggest issues in public high schools today and it is extremely overlooked by teachers and not taking exams seriously. Teachers can show their support in many different ways to show students that it is a real thing. Mental health days could improve the struggle tremendously and teachers and guidance counselors should have more education on the topic all around America.