Mental Health
ERIN ASLAN | MARCH 7, 2022 | OPINIONS
As social media gains popularity and student stressors become amplified, the mental health crisis among teens continues to intensify. The numerous suicides, bullying reports, and mental health concerns among students have sparked the attention of Duval County Public Schools. Although a number of attempts have been made by the district to solve this crisis, they have not been effective in doing so.
In the aftermath of COVID-19, mental health issues among adolescents have largely increased. According to the Florida Department of Health, the number of seriously mentally disturbed children ages 9 to 17 years old and the number of suicides of children 12 to 18 years have both been steadily increasing in Duval County for several years and have only gotten worse since the pandemic. This is due to the fact that mental health programs put in place prior to COVID-19 are not equipped to handle the stressors brought by the pandemic.
In 2019, DCPS made its first major attempt in aiding student mental health by implementing Wellness Wednesdays following Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis’ “Hope for Healing Florida” initiative. The premise for Wellness Wednesdays is that students are to watch 30 minute videos centered around mental health aids and how students can combat stressors in a healthy way. From an outside perspective this seems like the ideal course of action. However, a majority of students have found these videos to be boring, unrelatable, and cringe-worthy. It seems as though the district is trying too hard (and failing) to relate to students by featuring celebrities such as Emma Chamberlain and Demi Lovato while neglecting realistic teen problems. Most of the videos feature subjects such as sexting, suicide prevention, and bullying, but these issues are not as straightforward as the videos make them out to be, thus students can not relate to the content. It is also important to note that a large number of current teen issues stem from COVID-19 impacts and yet these videos do not speak on the topic of coping with the effects of the pandemic. Since the videos fail to address relevant student stressors, a large number of students do not pay attention to the videos, meaning not only is the intended purpose not being served but the videos are also wasting the time of both students and teachers.
In 2021, Stanton College Preparatory School implemented Blue Devil Hour which, like Wellness Wednesday, is meant to improve student mental health. Blue Devil Hour works alongside Wellness Wednesdays but with a different approach, allowing students to choose an activity of interest to take part in at the end of every early release Wednesday. Some of these activities include flag football, study hall, video games, various forms of art, and more. Although enjoyed by several students, a number have found that their mental health relief does not necessarily come from the activities themselves but rather the fact that classes are shortened to 37 minutes instead of the typical 90. With class time so limited, some teachers are reluctant to assign major assessments, presentations, or lessons. Therefore, students feel less stress and pressure on these days. This leads students to wonder if there is a more effective and efficient way to resolve this ravaging crisis.
When battling issues as extensive as the mental health crisis, it will take many efforts to figure out what works best as a solution. Wellness Wednesday and Blue Devil Hour are merely stepping stones to a successful solution. Students would benefit if these were eliminated and mental health days were put into place instead. Mental health days would be days where students, teachers, and staff do not come into school and simply have a day off. On such days teachers would be advised to not assign any homework or stress-provoking assignments such as presentations, essays, and assessments. This way students as well as staff can take time to catch up on assignments, spend time with family, and take part in activities they enjoy. This can be incredibly beneficial since students that have to miss multiple days of school due to COVID-19 can make up assignments without having to miss class time.
Some may argue that weekends or holiday breaks are already in place for this purpose, however they tend to be busy times for several students. At Stanton especially, most students have hours of homework, sports games, or jobs to attend. This takes up most of their time during regularly scheduled breaks, meaning the time off is not necessarily considered stress relieving. In addition, many colleges have already implemented mental health days for their students. Most recently, Howard University gave students mental health days off school following COVID-19 outbreaks, bomb threats, and other related stressful events. Students took to social media to describe how they felt and stated that they enjoyed having time off but wished that the university implemented mental health days regardless of what is going on within the school environment. Currently, Chicago Public Schools is trying to pass a new regulation that allows students to take mental health days off school without the need of a note from a doctor, which could also be a potential solution.
Considering such feedback from other schools and how Wellness Wednsdays and Blue Devil Hour played out at Stanton, it is safe to say that mental health days are an appropriate next step in combating the mental health crisis within schools.