Student's Mental Health and Safety in Schools

In an article by Amanda Litvinov and other colleagues, she talked about different problems public schools are having today. Within it, she mentioned school safety and student's mental health. These two problems caught my attention because being a high school student myself, I am also dealing with these issues, and so are many of my peers.

Kathy Reamy, a school counselor at La Plata High School said, "Honestly, I've had more students this year hospitalized for anxiety, depression, and other mental-health issues than ever," in an article by NEA Today. She also added that "There's just so much going on in this day and age, the pressure to fit in, the pressure to achieve, the pressure of social media."

I related to this quote because I personally struggle with mental health issues, and I know others who do as well. The problem with our society today is that since everyone is trying to fit in so much, we all become the same person. Different trends become so popular, like clothes, songs, or sayings, that everyone is wearing the same things, listening to the same music, and saying the same phrases. This is fine, but society also says that you should be different and stand out.

How can you stand out when you get made fun of or bullied for it? Why is it okay for people to preach one thing but not practice it?

All of this pressure to be different but to also fit in can help build up anxiety and depression in us.

Another issue that doesn't help with anxiety is school safety. According to CNN, there had been 22 school shootings in 2019, just up until July.

Litvinov mentioned a survey by the Pew Research Center, saying that 57% of U.S. teens are worried about having a shooting in their school. And that was just a couple months after the Parkland school shooting. The percentage probably has gone up.

A sad thing about school shootings is that since we see them all over the news these days, it seems like it's just become a norm. I have also observed that since it's a normal thing, people joke about it all the time. Now I know that a lot of people use comedy as a coping mechanism, but I feel as though this topic shouldn't really be laughed about because it is so relevant.

Citations

Flannery, Mary Ellen. "The Epidemic of Anxiety among Today's Students." NEA
Today, National Education Association , 28 Mar. 2018, neatoday.org/2018/
      03/28/the-epidemic-of-student-anxiety/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.

Graf, Nikki. "A Majority of U.S. Teens Fear a Shooting Could Happen at Their

School, and Most Parents Share Their Concern." Pew Research Center, 18 Apr.
      2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/18/
      a-majority-of-u-s-teens-fear-a-shooting-could-happen-at-their-school-and-most-par
      ents-share-their-concern/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.

Litvinov, Amanda, et al. "10 Challenges Facing Public Education Today." NEA
      Today, National Education Association, 3 Aug. 2018, neatoday.org/2018/
      08/03/10-challenges-facing-public-education-today/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2019.

Lou, Michelle, and Christina Walker. "There Have Been 22 School Shootings in the
      US so Far This Year." CNN, Cable News Network, 26 July 2019, www.cnn.com/
      2019/05/08/us/school-shootings-us-2019-trnd/index.html?no-st=1573741101.
      Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.